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If they are not precisely at opposite ends of the scale, they do serve well to illustrate the breadth of the industry here.
We also take a look at one specific area of success. Katalin Karikó became something of an international hero during the COVID-19 pandemic, with her work on messenger ribonucleic acid (that’s mRNA to you and me) helping pave the way to a global vaccine rollout, and her scoring a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023, alongside her research partner, the American immunologist Drew Weissman. Although, as she says, “I dreamt about doing research, not getting an award.” But mRNA is not a one-trick pony. Work is now underway to try to develop a vaccine for cancer using the technology.
That should be welcome news everywhere, but nowhere more so than in Hungary. According to the OECD’s 2025 Country Cancer Profile, published in February of this year, the “estimated cancer incidence and cancer mortality in Hungary are above the EU averages for both men and women, driven by a high burden of lung cancer and colorectal cancer.” Although there has been a reduction in cancer mortality rates since 2011, “in 2021, with 310 cancer deaths per 100,000 population, Hungary continued to have the highest cancer mortality rate in the EU. Cancer mortality was significantly higher among men (415 per 100,000) than among women (245 per 100,000).” There is plenty to do here.
If Hungary has long been able to draw on the brain-power of world-leading scientists, it has another possibly unique treasure trove: an almost unparalleled centralized repository of patient data that is, perhaps literally, a gold mine for life sciences researchers. Even though Hungary has no dedicated Minister of Health, healthcare itself is centralized through the state in a way that simply doesn’t happen in Germany, for example, where it is devolved down to individual states. Even in the United Kingdom, proud as it is of its National Health Service, policy is decided at the national level, but a complex mix of regional and local bodies is relied upon to implement it. Hungary is able to lay its hands on comparable, searchable data collected from across the nation, which is vital for understanding the starting point of a patient population and the results of any tests and treatments you run. Little wonder, then, that the country ranks among Europe’s top five for trial activity per capita. As Colette Matz, the boss of Novartis Hungary, points out, her team also coordinates research across several countries in the region. “This dual role, local execution and regional leadership, cements Hungary’s reputation as a hub for high-impact innovation,” she says. Amen to that.
Robin Marshall
Editor-in-chief
This editorial was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of September 19, 2025.
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