Steven N.
László Szabó, former head of the pharmaceutical company Teva, former ambassador of Hungary to Washington, and the current CEO of Mediaworks, a media holding company close to the government, has been appointed by Minister László Palkovics as commissioner for the pharmaceutical industry.
The appointment was announced by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (ITM) and quoted by state news agency MTI. The statement claims that the appointment of László Szabó was necessary because of the need to strengthen the relationship between domestic and international market participants and to develop “the pharmaceutical industry segment, which is becoming more strategically important.”
The communiqué recalls Szabó’s pharmaceutical and diplomatic past as a former head of Teva and former ambassador to Washington, in which he emphasizes that “he has both experience in the pharmaceutical industry and appropriate practice in diplomacy.”
At the same time, reports Magyar Hang, the announcement omitted that László Szabó is one of the most influential figures in the propaganda press, in his role as the head of Mediaworks Hungary Zrt. He replaced Gábor Liszkay in the position in April 15 last year as the company’s CEO and Chair.
The ITM statement emphasizes that Hungary had once been a leading pharmaceutical-exporting nation, and that the government has “taken a number of steps in the past year to strengthen the Hungarian healthcare industry, including the pharmaceutical industry.” Among these are a vaccine factory in Debrecen for which construction has begun, as well as several research projects.
