DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY IN POLAND IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: CONCLUSIONS FOR UKRAINE

Abstract

In the short term, the measures of the Polish government in the process of European integration proved to be ineffective and did not allow to achieve the goal set by 2002: to strengthen the competitiveness of pharmaceutical companies. The implementation of EU standards and regulations, the adoption of the law on forms of support for innovation have created the basis for the government (co-financed by EU funds) to support research and development and innovation projects and launch the sectoral program InnoNeuroPharm, which, together with tax incentives for research and development and other activities politicians, gave positive impetus to business. With the accession to the EU, Polish pharmaceutical manufacturers have improved their economic results, but still lag far behind German manufacturers, in terms of both technological level and innovation activity, as well as in terms of productivity and wages. The development of the industry is hampered by a number of obstacles: lack of a clear strategy and lack of coordination between concerned authorities; lack of incentives to attract investment; human factor and “industrial corruption”. In the process of European integration, Poland quickly managed to introduce top-down formal institutions, but the transformation of informal institutions continues today. One of the factors that caused falling behind and weak competitiveness of Ukrainian medicines is that European integration processes are aimed primarily at harmonizing the legislative and regulatory framework for pharmaceuticals production, rather than building the potential for endogenous development of the industry. It is noted that only the introduction of a purposeful comprehensive state policy of building "technological champions" in pharmaceuticals based on endogenous innovations can “convert” European integration processes into competitive Ukrainian products and bring them to European markets. It is substantiated that without mental and value changes, transformation of informal institutions and improvement of framework conditions for innovations, the country's benefits from European integration for the development of Ukrainian pharmaceuticals will be limited and unable to reduce the technological and economic gap with European industry leaders.