Organized by the Budapest Business Journal with the professional support of Phoenix Group and Benu Pharmacies, the new platform is dedicated to one of the most dynamic industrial sectors, which faces unique challenges and touches all kinds of areas, from supporting everyday well-being to developing new medicines and treatments and, of course, providing a backbone for the Hungarian national healthcare system and keeping our hospitals running.

The event started with two 15-minute keynote presentations. Zsolt Bibity, general manager for Hungary at IQ VIA, spoke about “Pharma Trends and Shortage Challenges.” Dóra Szerencsés, healthcare strategic director and partner at Inspira Group, spoke about the “Challenges Facing the Pharmaceutical Industry From the Patients’ Perspective.”

That was followed by a roundtable featuring Dr. Judit Bidló (Deputy State Secretary for the Professional Management of Health at the Ministry of the Interior), Dr. Katalin Szalóki (director of AIPM, the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers or AIPM), Wolfgang Wallisch (CEO of Phoenix Group in Hungary), and Matt Zeller (country president for Novartis Hungary).

To the surprise of no one, there was unanimous agreement the sector could always use more more money, and while government and industry naturally had different positions on the appropriate tax level, all agreed the proper allocation of the existing resources was the crucial issue. The discussion was notable for its collegiate nature.

Takeaways included the need for a holistic approach, for all stakeholders to find the best way to work together for better patient health outcomes, a call for better transparency and predictability, the need for better efficiencies in all areas of healthcare, but also the potential offered across the next 18 months by centralized data collection and advances in AI, digitization, and e-medicine for a transformative systemic change.