Hungary mulls R&D rules for drugmakers

Hungary is planning to change write-off rules for R&D costs for pharma firms, according to a draft bill submitted to parliament.

Hungary is planning to change write-off rules for R&D costs for pharma firms, according to a draft bill submitted to parliament. And as Reuters notes, drugmakers like Egis and Richter could be hurt if the bill were to pass. Both companies declined to comment on the news.

The Hungarian government has imposed similar burdens on banks, the retail, energy and telecoms sectors, but the pharma sector has so far escaped.

Business website Portfolio.hu reported that, based on the bill, drug companies could no longer write off R&D costs from tax payments on subsidized drugs and fees payable on sales agents. "Based on what we can see in the current form of the bill, Richter and Egis will not be able to reduce payments to the state by about 500-600 million forints per quarter," Equilor analyst Akos Kuti says. "For me it is not a surprise that the pharma companies join those sectors which receive extra (tax) burdens, but the market had not calculated with that."