Hungary's "innovativ" says it is not new drugs causing health budget overrun

The ongoing deficit of Hungary's health fund "is the talk of the town," according to the country's Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (Innovativ). This summer, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany revealed that that the central health budget defict will be 8% of the Gross Domestic Product (Marketletter June 26).

The long years of overspending is due, in the first place, to budgetary under planning, in other words, to the estimate determined at an unrealistically-low level. In analyses, this overspending is often blamed on new, modern medicines, says the Association.

Today, it points out, using medicines to treat diseases has become a natural thing. Behind this progress are great results attained by drug research over the past hundred years.