Hungary's OEP cuts 15B forint more from Rx bill

It seems that the domestic environment in Hungary will not ease in the near future, as the National Health Insurance Fund (OEP) continues to  tighten its drugs budget further. In April, the OEP budget (already  reduced by a quarter in 2007) was cut by another 15.0 billion forint  ($73.2 million).

Almost half of the savings are expected from cutting the reimbursement  rate of the most-widely prescribed antihypertensives and cholesterol  lowerers from 85% to 80%. "The measure is again very painful for  Richter, as one fourth of its domestic sales are generated by  cardiovasculars," Marketletter's correspondent writes (see page 3). The  prices of more than one in 10 of drugs on the Hungarian market are  affected by the April changes. These include some of antacids,  anti-allergic drugs and cardiovascular products which are now delisted  from reimbursement.

Price competition among pharmaceutical manufacturers continues through  the bidding system and reference pricing. The prices of 227 drugs were  cut on April 1 by an average of 2.26%. In the case of 32 products, the  price reduction was significant, exceeding 5%. The latter included  painkillers, antacids, antibiotics, oncology products,  antihypertensives and anti-allergics.