Mandatory Drug Insurance Price Increase... Supply Stabilization
The Ministry of Health and Welfare will raise the insurance drug prices for essential medicines starting from the 1st of next month and apply insurance coverage to certain severe disease treatments. This measure aims to ensure the stable supply of essential drugs and strengthen the coverage of severe disease treatments to alleviate the economic burden on patients.
On the 24th, the Ministry announced that, following deliberations by the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee, it will implement measures such as raising insurance drug prices and applying insurance coverage to severe disease treatments.
Through this measure, the price of Jungwoo Pharmaceutical's 'Lactulose Concentrated Syrup (Durakkan IG Syrup)', a treatment for chronic constipation (cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy) that has had a supply shortage compared to demand, will be increased.
This medicine has faced supply shortages due to difficulties in raw material production and procurement, and it was discussed in the 'Public-Private Working-Level Council for Responding to Supply Instability of Medicines' that a price increase was necessary to boost production. To ensure stable supply, a condition was set to supply quantities based on the average monthly usage over the next year.
The Ministry plans to minimize patient inconvenience by closely analyzing changes in supply volume, usage, and market inventory of unstable supply drugs from a health security perspective and promptly increasing prices proportionally to additional production when price adjustments are necessary.
Additionally, to improve treatment accessibility for severe patients and reduce their economic burden, four new drugs will be newly listed for insurance coverage: 'treatment for hereditary retinal atrophy patients', 'chronic kidney disease treatment', 'acquired hemophilia A treatment', and 'multidrug-resistant bacteria antibiotics'.
The hereditary retinal atrophy treatment (Luxturna, Korea Novartis) is a drug that can provide long-term effects with a single treatment. The health insurance coverage is set to apply to "pediatric and adult patients who have lost vision due to gene mutations but still have sufficient surviving retinal cells." Patients previously had to bear a cost of 650 million KRW per year for treatment of both eyes, but with this health insurance application, the cost will be reduced to up to 10.5 million KRW (when applying the out-of-pocket maximum limit).
The chronic kidney disease treatment (Kerendia tablets, Bayer Korea) is covered when adult patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease are not adequately controlled by existing treatments and are treated in combination with existing therapies. Patients previously bore an annual medication cost of about 610,000 KRW, but with this health insurance application, the cost will be reduced to about 180,000 KRW (applying 30% out-of-pocket burden).
Lee Jung-kyu, Director of the Health Insurance Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "Through this drug price increase, essential medicines will be stably supplied from a health security perspective, and the application of insurance coverage for severe disease treatments is expected to reduce the burden on patients."
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