The morning began with a keynote presentation by Sylvain Hanssen, group director for digital commerce at Phoenix Pharmahandel GmbH & Co KG, headquartered in Mannheim, Germany.
Hanssen’s presentation focused on an area he described as his “passion” for the past decade: pharma digitization. Making the admittedly provocative point that you don’t realize something is here until it hits you in the face, he said there had been a marked if patchy shift across Europe to online over-the-counter drug sales. The fourth most significant player in the United Kingdom, for example, is the online vendor Pharmacey2U. Meanwhile, online accounts for only 1% of the market in Germany, although it is growing fast.
In Hungary’s much smaller and “less mature” market, regulatory hurdles were slowing uptake, Hanssen suggested, although there are already 700-plus pharmacies with an online license in the country. He believes it should be relatively easy to remove “friction” from the system.
Hanssen, who flew in from Zurich to make his presentation, also made the point that digital should be seen as a “new channel, not a new business” and that patients, regardless of country of origin, wanted a combination of bricks-and-mortar pharmacies and online options, not either-or.
The keynote was followed by a roundtable discussion moderatred by BBJ editor-in-chief Robin Marshall and featuring Dr. Judit BidlĂł, Deputy State Secretary for the Professional Management of Health at the Ministry of the Interior; Christoph W. Sensen, director general and CEO of HCEMM Nonprofit Kft. in Szeged, which runs the Hungarian Center of Excellence for Molecular Medicine; Dr. Katalin SzalĂłki, CEO of the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Hungary; and Wolfgang Wallisch, the CEO of Phoenix Group in Hungary and the man who launched the franchise-based Benu pharmacy chain in Hungary.
Highlights of a conversation notable for the willingness of participants to engage with the topics rather than merely agree with one another included the need for research organizations such as HCEMM to work with industry on what industry wants (rather than what academics think it needs). There is a need for cooperation across the board and in all elements of healthcare for economic predictability and improved patient healthcare education. While panelists agreed there was a readiness to talk, there was also a Europe-wide lack of visi
Deputy State Secretary Bidló thought Hungary’s healthcare suggestions under its Presidency of the Council of the European Union had been well received. There was agreement that more must be done to improve efficiency for all stakeholders, including doctors and patients, as much as governments and industry. While a pan-European solution to healthcare is probably unrealistic, a common approach on things such as pricing and, in particular, logistics would undoubtedly help.
While there were concerns expressed about the level of STEM education, and SzalĂłki and Wallisch were particularly worried about whether there were enough inspirational teachers to fire the required passion, Sensen, a German national who had previously worked in the German and Austrian university fields, said things were demonstrably better here. He has no qualms about the quality (or quantity) of the Hungarian researchers he is taking on.
Networking opportunities bookended the keynote and roundtable as the Pharma CEO Breakfast lived up to its mission of bringing together critical stakeholders from the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry to discuss challenges and explore opportunities for growth and innovation. The goal of the breakfast is to facilitate comprehensive discussions on the latest issues but also to promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing between industry leaders and government representatives, and to foster stronger relationships within the Hungarian healthcare ecosystem.
Hanssen’s presentation focused on an area he described as his “passion” for the past decade: pharma digitization. Making the admittedly provocative point that you don’t realize something is here until it hits you in the face, he said there had been a marked if patchy shift across Europe to online over-the-counter drug sales. The fourth most significant player in the United Kingdom, for example, is the online vendor Pharmacey2U. Meanwhile, online accounts for only 1% of the market in Germany, although it is growing fast.
In Hungary’s much smaller and “less mature” market, regulatory hurdles were slowing uptake, Hanssen suggested, although there are already 700-plus pharmacies with an online license in the country. He believes it should be relatively easy to remove “friction” from the system.
Hanssen, who flew in from Zurich to make his presentation, also made the point that digital should be seen as a “new channel, not a new business” and that patients, regardless of country of origin, wanted a combination of bricks-and-mortar pharmacies and online options, not either-or.
The keynote was followed by a roundtable discussion moderatred by BBJ editor-in-chief Robin Marshall and featuring Dr. Judit BidlĂł, Deputy State Secretary for the Professional Management of Health at the Ministry of the Interior; Christoph W. Sensen, director general and CEO of HCEMM Nonprofit Kft. in Szeged, which runs the Hungarian Center of Excellence for Molecular Medicine; Dr. Katalin SzalĂłki, CEO of the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Hungary; and Wolfgang Wallisch, the CEO of Phoenix Group in Hungary and the man who launched the franchise-based Benu pharmacy chain in Hungary.
Highlights of a conversation notable for the willingness of participants to engage with the topics rather than merely agree with one another included the need for research organizations such as HCEMM to work with industry on what industry wants (rather than what academics think it needs). There is a need for cooperation across the board and in all elements of healthcare for economic predictability and improved patient healthcare education. While panelists agreed there was a readiness to talk, there was also a Europe-wide lack of visi
Deputy State Secretary Bidló thought Hungary’s healthcare suggestions under its Presidency of the Council of the European Union had been well received. There was agreement that more must be done to improve efficiency for all stakeholders, including doctors and patients, as much as governments and industry. While a pan-European solution to healthcare is probably unrealistic, a common approach on things such as pricing and, in particular, logistics would undoubtedly help.
While there were concerns expressed about the level of STEM education, and SzalĂłki and Wallisch were particularly worried about whether there were enough inspirational teachers to fire the required passion, Sensen, a German national who had previously worked in the German and Austrian university fields, said things were demonstrably better here. He has no qualms about the quality (or quantity) of the Hungarian researchers he is taking on.
Networking opportunities bookended the keynote and roundtable as the Pharma CEO Breakfast lived up to its mission of bringing together critical stakeholders from the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry to discuss challenges and explore opportunities for growth and innovation. The goal of the breakfast is to facilitate comprehensive discussions on the latest issues but also to promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing between industry leaders and government representatives, and to foster stronger relationships within the Hungarian healthcare ecosystem.