Gene and cell therapies, precision oncology, and highly targeted treatments for rare diseases are transforming outcomes for patients who previously had limited or no therapeutic options. But as scientific barriers continue to fall, she highlights a further challenge: ensuring that patients can actually access these innovations.

For healthcare systems, the question is no longer whether innovative therapies create value. The challenge is how to finance access to them sustainably. Many of today’s breakthrough therapies differ fundamentally from traditional medicines. They often involve a single administration or a short treatment period, yet generate benefits that may last for years or even a lifetime.

This creates a mismatch between when costs occur and when value is realized. Healthcare payers may need to fund treatments costing even millions of euros today, while the benefits emerge gradually over the coming decade.

At the same time, healthcare systems are facing growing pricing pressure. Aging populations, rising demand for care, workforce shortages, and increasingly complex technologies are placing public budgets under strain. As a result, discussions around pharmaceutical spending often focus on cost containment.

While financial sustainability remains essential, an exclusive focus on short-term budget impact may overlook the long-term value innovative therapies can deliver through improved outcomes and avoided future healthcare costs.

Compounding the challenge is uncertainty. Reimbursement decisions are often made before long-term evidence becomes available, leaving payers to balance patient need against financial risk.

Innovative Financing

Fortunately, innovative financing approaches are emerging alongside innovative therapies. Outcome-based reimbursement agreements link payment to the patients’ health outcomes, while delayed or spread payment models distribute costs over several years. Together, these approaches can help manage budget impact while maintaining patient access to high-value treatments.

However, innovative contracts alone are not enough. Experience from several countries shows that barriers are often systemic rather than purely financial. Data infrastructure, governance frameworks, institutional capabilities, and stakeholder trust all influence whether innovative financing models can be implemented successfully.

For Hungary and the wider region, this creates both a challenge and an opportunity. Healthcare systems were largely designed around chronic treatments with predictable annual costs. Today’s innovations increasingly require significant upfront investment while creating value over many years. Financing and reimbursement frameworks must evolve alongside scientific progress.

This requires closer collaboration among policymakers, payers, healthcare providers, patient organizations, and the pharmaceutical industry. The debate should no longer focus solely on whether countries can afford innovation. The more relevant question is whether they can afford to delay access to therapies that may fundamentally alter the course of disease and reduce future healthcare and societal costs.

At EY, we see growing demand for solutions that help stakeholders navigate this increasingly complex environment. From market access and pricing considerations to healthcare financing models, policy implementation, and ecosystem collaboration, success increasingly depends on bringing together scientific innovation, economic sustainability, and practical execution.

The next decade of healthcare will not be defined solely by breakthroughs in laboratories. It will also be shaped by the ability of health systems to translate those breakthroughs into timely patient access. The countries that succeed in doing so will not only improve health outcomes but also build more resilient and sustainable healthcare systems for the future.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of July 17, 2026.