Pharmaceutical Giant Gedeon Richter Unveils its New Headquarters in Budapest

The new headquarters of the Hungarian pharmaceutical firm Gedeon Richter in the 10th district of the capital was inaugurated on Thursday. The 17,400 square meter building, which provides space for 450 employees, was completed with an investment of HUF 20 billion (EUR 50 mil.), financed by the pharmaceutical company from its own resources.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Energy Minister Csaba Lantos stressed that the company represented not only innovation but also the government’s desire to “invest”. Without a foreign presence, it is impossible to remain competitive in the world in the long term, he stressed. He also spoke about the history of the company, how it grew from a simple pharmacy in Budapest to what it is today, mentioning its founder Gedeon Richter, who was murdered by the fascists in 1944. In his speech, Minister Lantos pointed out that the company continues its tradition of innovation, being one of the few pharmaceutical companies to carry out original research.
In certain industries, Hungary is too small, and if we want to remain competitive, we need to invest not only in research and development, but also in outsourcing. He said it was a particularly significant achievement that the pharmaceutical company could increase its export turnover, which would give stability to the company and thus to the national economy. The energy minister also pointed out that he had been a member of the company’s board of directors for more than 10 years and had been involved in the decision to build the new headquarters.

Gábor Orbán, the company’s CEO, said that Richter provides a third of the Hungarian corporate R&D expenditure, which enriches the company’s own intellectual capital, and that the intellectual assets created in Hungary can be converted into business results abroad.

CEO Gábor Orbán stressed that the new headquarters’ building, designed by the internationally renowned architect Gábor Zoboki, expresses Richter’s national and international standing. The new headquarters is a meeting point of Hungarian knowledge and economy, and the building is a worthy symbol of a global company headquartered in Hungary and present in around 100 countries, said the CEO.

The designer and architect of the new building, Gábor Zobok, gave an honest account of the “ups-and-downs” of this giant project, but he also emphasized that in his view there has not been an industrial architectural project on this scale in Hungary since the end of WWII.

E Sylvester Vizi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, explained that Richter is a Hungarian multinational company with subsidiaries in 50 countries, 93 percent of its products are sold abroad, more than half of its employees work abroad, and its product range includes Hungarian intellectual capital, which is also of material value to Hungary.

Ferenc Krausz, Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian physicist, said at the ceremony that Richter, a symbol of Hungarian innovation, had been appropriately “packaged”, referring to the state-of-the-art building.

Róbert D. Kovács, Mayor of the 10th district, said: “Richter’s new headquarters is the face of Kőbánya in the 21st century. The pharmaceutical company, which has been operating in Kőbánya for 120 years, represents quality and innovation in a competitive business environment and is developing like the district, preserving the values of the past and incorporating them into the present and the future.

 

Featured image: Hungary Today