The AIPM, representing 26 research and development oriented pharmaceutical companies, focuses on collaboration with newly elected officers.
Budapest, 21 June 2023
From 1 June 2023, the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers is represented by its new director, Dr. Katalin Szalóki, and its new chairperson is Dr. Ákos Kókai-Nagy, head of Biogen in Hungary. This combines a fresh approach with a wealth of pharmaceutical experience in the management team. The aim remains to ensure that Hungarian patients continue to have safe access to modern therapies that offer new opportunities, in the face of international challenges and in the current economic environment.
Dr. Ákos Kókai-Nagy, elected to represent the Board, has been working as a pharmaceutical executive for decades. He was head of a company not only in Hungary but also in Denmark, one of the centres of innovative pharmaceutical manufacturing. He has professional and management qualifications from SOTE, the United States and France.
The new Director, Dr. Katalin Szalóki, who is responsible for coordinating AIPM’s 26 member companies and for the day-to-day management of the organisation, is a professional with extensive diplomatic, governmental and industry experience, having led the International and EU Affairs team in PwC’s consulting business before taking up her position as Director of AIPM.
“We are convinced that the Government of Hungary is also committed to creating a healthy and strong Hungarian society, and Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers will continue to fully support the government’s efforts to this end and will work even more openly and with greater commitment to establish an effective dialogue between the government and the actors in the pharmaceutical industry in the interest of patients.” – underlined the AIPM Director.
As a professional, who also has extensive experience in health care and is committed to improving health literacy, Dr. Szalóki said that she begins her work at a time of great challenge and opportunity at the helm of the Association, which in its more than three decades of operation has achieved extraordinary results in improving access to innovative medical solutions for the Hungarian population. In fact, innovative therapies contribute to the healing of one in every three Hungarians, whether they suffer from the most dreaded diseases or little-known rare conditions.
The aim of the new management is to communicate the previously established priorities effectively and positively and to raise awareness of the importance of pharmaceutical innovation as widely as possible. In the future, the Association intends to place even greater emphasis on the partnerships that are essential on both the industry and the decision maker side, in order to work together with other actors in the pharmaceutical industry in Hungary to promote the healing of Hungarian patients and the presence of an innovative pharmaceutical industry.
Without innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers, who spend more than 15% of their total global revenues on the development of new therapies, there is no effective care in Hungary, and these new innovative therapies typically have no substitute alternatives. Therefore, the Association sees itself as a responsible actor in making Hungary a dominant actor in the region, a reliable partner in the eyes of international innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers, and making all innovative new therapies available to the Hungarian people. This requires a change in the current regulatory environment, a reduction in burdens and a stable, predictable business environment in the long term.
About the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (AIPM):
The Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (AIPM) was founded in 1992 and consists of 26 research and development oriented pharmaceutical companies in Hungary, which account for more than 50 percent of the domestic trade in medicines, and the activities of these member companies contribute nearly 1 percent of the GDP. Its member companies are major investors in the economy and healthcare via the research and clinical trials conducted in Hungary. As a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), one of the most important objectives of the AIPM is to ensure access to medical solutions based on modern discoveries for as many Hungarians as possible. www.aipm.hu
About innovative medicines and innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers:
Innovative or originator medicines incorporating the latest active ingredients to treat specific diseases represent the most effective therapies based on our current level of knowledge. Innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers offer effective medicinal products developed using the most advanced medical equipment for the treatment of diseases that used to be considered incurable. As a result of their work in pharmaceutical development, numerous diseases (such as cardiovascular and oncological diseases or AIDS) have become curable or more efficiently treatable in the past 30–40 years. Today, the expenses related to the development of an innovative medicine exceed two billion euros and the process itself takes at least 10 years. A significant number of diseases that are important from the aspect of public health cannot be treated efficiently and cost-effectively without innovative medicines.
Most of the clinical trials conducted in Hungary related to pharmaceutical development are initiated by innovative manufacturers, producing an annual added value of nearly HUF 100 billion to the Hungarian economy. Innovative pharmaceutical companies spend an average of 15.1 percent of their revenues on research and development.