"I am still furious that it is not the Institute of Public Health that prepares flu vaccines any more. If the manufacturing of vaccines had been outsourced to a private company during the last months of my work as the minister, it was all done behind my back," says László Surján in an interview with Heti Válasz. We presented the health minister of the Antall government with the socialist statements, according to which, it was the first freely elected government to give the right to manufacture  Hungarian flu vaccines to Omninvest Ltd.

1. Who is behind this vaccine business?

Commercial Court data shows there is no need for Surján to be worried: the first "income from flu" from the budget was received by the company in 1995, that is under the Horn government; Omninvest earned HUF 557 million for vaccines then. The manufacturing of vaccines had proven to be a very lucrative business, the revenues of the company kept increasing - in 2006, for example, the firm achieved HUF 745 million in earnings before taxes with domestic sales amounting to HUF 4.5 billion. This year will definitely be the most profitable. Our calculations suggest that the state will pay the company a sum close to HUF 6 billion - this includes the seasonal vaccine - and a further HUF 1-2 billion is expected to be realised from the sales of vaccines in pharmacies.

In the past 14 years, Omninvest Ltd has received at least HUF 15 billion from the state budget, while taxpayers do not have the faintest idea in whose bank account the billions end up. A Cyprus company owns 98% of Omninvest and the name of the real owners is kept secret. There is more: even the agreement concluded with Omninvest has been classified as confidential for a period of ten years according to the Ministry of Health. Last week, when members of the committee responsible for healthcare affairs at the Parliament demanded the right to „have a look at the documents", they were taken aback when the Ministry interpreted their request literally. The ten members received three-four seventy to eighty page which they had to return after a short time, literally after having taken a look at them. There was no company extract provided with the documents; though had been any, it would not have been of much use either, since Cyprus - apart from tax breaks - also offers protection for businesses registered on its territory: the name(s) of investor(s) are not given out.

A month ago, Heti Válasz turned to the data protection commissioner because of the classification of the agreement concluded with Omninvest. András Jóri launched an investigation and announced that the agreement must be published. However, we could not examine the document even after the opinion of the commissioner was issued, as health minister Tamás Székely did not want to make the whole text available - he was still negotiating with the data protection commissioner on the parts that would remain confidential as Heti Válasz went to press. What we wanted to know was this: what happens to the ampoules left unused as a result of bad communication and chaotic organisation of the vaccination campaign, will the state have to pay for these, too? Based on the information we have, the answer to this question is yes.

The minister is alleged to have said at a meeting of the parliamentary committee held behind closed doors that the majority owner of Omninvest was a British investment company. Having studied the company's documents, however, Heti Válasz thinks that the firm and the related companies are under Hungarian majority ownership. This is because the alleged British owners hiding behind the Cypriot company would probably never allow Omninvest to carry out such nepotistic business policies. The Hungarian vaccine is not undergoing an authorisation procedure abroad - which hinders sales outside the borders -, even though it is clear from the Ukrainian example how high the demand would be for it.

Ominvest is probably using its Cyprus "location" merely for tax optimisation purposes. Although many suspect socialist politicians behind the company, we could not find anyone with any political affiliations, except for the late lawyer of the company, Zoltán Kaizinger, who died in 2004 (he worked for state security services before the political changes).

Many people have come and gone in the history of Omninvest, which started in 1991. Still, the owners before the "Cyprus period" were not well known people. The firm was established by Péter Vajó and his wife. Another family, Tamás Laczkó and his relatives joined a few months later. The same two families set up Econet in 1991 (not to be confused with the media company named econet.hu), which is the central company in the Omninvest group. The third dominating figure of this net consisting of 10-12 limited companies was soon to appear in the person of Ferenc Hudy. The three heads of families spent four years establishing different companies for different business activities when eventually, their first and to date, only significant business success, the manufacturing of vaccines, finally "bore fruit" in 1995. Mostly the same principles became the owners of Omninvest and Econet, registered in the same house in Zugló (district XIV of Budapest) for a long time. Even their "offshore life" is shared: the two firms were first owned by a Liechtenstein company named Tucona International, then were sold to the mysterious Sumpter Pharmaceuticals Limited, registered in Cyprus.

If Tucona and Sumpter were really owned by foreign investment funds, then the history of the Omninvest group - from a Hungarian point of view - would be a story of failures. One of the most renowned Hungarian virologists, István Jankovics, led the company's professional work for years, handing the manufacturing method over to Omninvest. The more lucrative the business became, the more the original founders were squeezed out of the group of companies. At the most profitable of times, i.e. during the era of swine flu, Vajó is no longer among the owners - at least on paper -, Hudy is no longer managing director and Laczkó has to make do with a 2% share in Omninvest and the job of managing the company. This means that the major part of development support - including the 2 billion received for the work on vaccines against bird flu - goes to the majority owner registered in Cyprus.

The behaviour of the members of the triumvirate makes the British influence behind the "Cypriots" scenario even more unlikely. We have heard about companies changing their registered seat after a change in ownership, but the events occuring in the history of Omninvest are quite peculiar. In 2003, Econet dismissed its managing director, Ferenc Hudy. He did not, however, cease all business relations with the company. On the contrary, his flat in Miskolc became the registered seat of the other company  belonging to the owner of the firm registered in Cyprus. Furthermore, Hudy happily continued to be a member of the board of supervisors of Omninvest. Were it revealed that the mysterious investor, said to be British, is so secretive because he is not British and not an investor, everything could be explained.

Another elements also support the Hungarian involvement scenario. the Omninvest group is present in the real estate market and also in the biofuel industry, without any trace of business activities abroad. The link between these three "divisions" is Econet, which participates in project companies. After time, usually the same happens as happended to Omninvest: sooner or later an offshore business buys out the Hungarian owners. At the moment, the group is making plans to build a bio-plant in Vép, a settlement close to Szombathely. However, it seems here that they are less successful in sectors where no revenues from the state are likely. So far only the silos have been erected, the bioethanol plant is still waiting to be built, even though the opening ceremony was planned for this autumn.

2. Why has the price of the vaccine doubled?

Being vaccinated requires an even more complicated procedure than the investigation of the firm's links to Cyprus. Those under the age of 14 and people suffering from chronic diseases are entitled to the vaccine for free and are not required to pay the doctor for administering it. Secondary school and university students, on the other hand, pay the full price of the vaccine, plus a fee for its administration to their GP, which means they pay twice the sum of HUF 1930 for protection.

But how do we arrive at the pharmacy price which is almost double that quoted by the manufacturer, HUF 1050? By the time the ampoules arrive at the pharmacy door, they suddenly cost HUF 1675. Distributors use a 6-7% margin - but not for the vaccine. Here, the exclusive distributor, the Institute for the Management of Healthcare Supplies (Egészségügyi Készletgazdálkodási Intézet) uses a margin of almost 40%, swallowing the extra profit. (Pharmacists calculate with the normal margin of 13%.) This means that the price of protection for a four-member family - two secondary school students and two parents - amounts to HUF 15 440, which might deter many people from being vaccinated.

3. Vaccination: yes or no?

The Ukrainian events caused some members of the "no-campaign" to think again: an increasing number of patients have been registered with the new flu there. The proportion of cases where the flu is accompanied by serious pneumonia as a result of secondary infection is much higher than in Western Europe. Symptoms are so worrying that Slovakia has decided to seal off its borders to the East.

In the meantime, the vaccination of children under 14 has started in Hungarian schools, but only for those pupils whose parents make writte requests. A second round of vaccination is quite possible due to the low demand - László Bujdosó, the president of the National Pandemic Commission tells us. When making a decision about your child, you should consider how far the nearest children's hospital is from your home and how well it is equipped. In most cases, the virus "only" causes symptoms of a normal flu, but it has contributed to a significant increase in the number of hospital admissions. In the UK, three people out of a hundred thousand require hospital care because of flu-like symptoms. Among children under 5, this figure increases to ten. Twenty percent of those referred to hospital are in intensive care, many needing breathing assistance.

4. How come the vaccine is in short supply?

Omninvest is alleged to have delivered two million ampoules. In spite of this, the vaccine was not available even at the beginning of this week. Pharmacies in Veszprém received forty ampoules each, which were snapped up in a day. The seasonal flu vaccine is in short supply, too. Balázs Herczeg, a pharmacist in the town of Sopron also informed us that after spending several days on the telephone and fax machine, he has only been able to purchase forty ampoules so far. Because of  disorganisation already mentioned, those required to pay - employees and those above the age of 14 - are queuing in vain at their GP's surgery for a prescription. As they will not be able to get hold of the ampoule itself, therefore they will not able to queue again in order to be vaccinated.         

Beliefs and misbeliefs

Misbelief no 1 :

The Hungarian vaccine was authorised too quickly, therefore it is not safe.

In reality: Out of the four vaccines marketed in Europe, only the Hungarian one was tested on children. As far as the Western vaccines are concerned, only one multinational company, Glaxo, performed tests with the H1N1 virus. Other vaccines were authorised based on experience gained in relation to other, earlier virus strands.

Misbelief no 2 :

The Hungarian vaccine often causes side-effects.

In reality: Every vaccine has side-effects. Local pain is often experienced, accompanied by fever in some cases. The situation is much worse in Germany since the vaccine there contains sharkliver oil, causing fever in ten percent of people vaccinated. (The oil is used so that the killed viruses do not all simultaneously „break free" in the body, rather being released gradually, one after the other.)

Misbelief no 3 :

Many people only ask for the seasonal flu vaccine as they think the H1N1 vaccine has not yet been tested, is therefore dangerous, and there are business reasons for its propagation.

In reality: The seasonal flu vaccine does not offer any protection against the new flu virus. The swine flu vaccine is manufactured in the same factory as the normal flu vaccine, employing the same professionals, using the same machinery, and it earns the company the same amount of profit as the normal flu vaccine.

Misbelief no 4 :

The number of fatalities in the UK is this high because of long waiting lists at the surgeries of general practitioners. The situation will be better in Hungary.

In reality: Those people in the UK who have developed at least two symptoms possibly caused by influenza can call a hotline. They are not put on a waiting list, but provided with antiviral treatment immediately.