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In developed countries, such as the Czech Republic, medicinal drugs are often taken for granted by the patients who need them. But those drugs are also a big money product for their manufacturers and a potentially high earning commodity for firms who distribute them round Europe. Moves to limit so-called re-export of drugs are now being drawn up by the Czech Ministry of Health and look like pitting producers against these re-distributors. The final shape of the law being closely followed by the European Commission in Brussels.

The Czech Republic’s flagship Brno international engineering fair starts next Monday. And this year there is a special exhibition devoted to what many are describing as the fourth industrial revolution. And while the rewards for participation are not wholly clear, the penalty for the countries, sectors, and companies which fail to take part could be fatal.

China, in the words of Napoleon, was a sleeping giant. But as the recent stock exchange crisis showed, the world’s second biggest economy can now make everyone wake up and take notice when it looks a bit off colour. The Czech Republic has recently changed its policy towards China and is both looking to boost exports to the massive market and win Chinese investment.

Business through diversity was the theme of a day long seminar accompanying the recent Prague Pride events. Basically, speakers argued that companies and institutions which allowed their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual employees to be open about their sexual preferences get a much better performance out of them. Such companies also improve their overall image, improve recruiting chances, and plug into a significant section of the market. So, how is the Czech Republic doing with regard to the LGBT community and market?

Wages are now a growing issue across the Czech Republic. The central bank sees wage rises as a tool in the next year or so which can push up inflation to desirable levels. Trade unions say their membership curbed their demands during the recent recession but it’s now time for companies to offer more from what are quite often double digit profit increases. A sympathetic government is often caught in the middle. Vít Samek is the deputy chairman of the country’s biggest confederation of trade unions, the Bohemian and Moravian Confederation of Trade

There is no doubt that the gaming or gambling industry is worth tens of billions of crowns in the Czech Republic. New moves from the government seek to curb it and put it under better control. But many gambling companies say stricter regulations will just speed up the movement of most of the business online.

Designer Anna Marešová first made headlines several years ago when her whoop.de.doo sex toys won the main National Student Design Award. Since, she has gone professional. Just recently she oversaw a crowdfunding campaign which raised almost 40,000 US dollars for the product line.

The mushrooming of office blocks and industrial parks and warehouses around the Czech Republic, but especially in the Prague region is one of the most visible signs of economic transformation over the last 20 years. And one of the closest witnesses of those changes has been Robert McLean, the editor-in-chief of Central and East European Construction and Investment Journal, a publication he helped set up in the mid 1990s. Mr. McLean says the commercial real estate market has clearly bounced back from its recent crisis and appears to be building on

It is perhaps a sign of the times last week that the Czech Republic’s biggest electricity company ČEZ, better known for its ownership of massive power plants, made news with the first investment by its relatively new and little heard of venture capital arm. The investment was in a German company which is at the cutting edge of making what could be the future model of the power market work: where consumers produce some of their power themselves and combine it with that purchased from convert. We spoke to the head of ČEZ’s venture capital fund. Petr

On many issues a compromise can be found, but on a proposed new amendment aimed at curbing retailers’ possibilities to abuse their dominant position on the market against suppliers there appears to be no meeting of minds. Retailers want the proposed changes scrapped and warn of the likelihood of higher prices and foreign retailers quitting the country if this does not happen. The Czech competition office says the new rules are a vital part of its toolbox to counter the abusive behavior of the big retail chains.