Research from College of Pharmacy Reveals New Findings on Pharmacology (Price increase negotiations to address drug shortages in South Korea’s national health insurance): Drugs and Therapies – Pharmacology

2023 DEC 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Data detailed on pharmacology have been presented. According to news reporting from Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “South Korea has adopted a unique approach to address drug shortages by increasing reimbursement prices within its National Health Insurance Service.”

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from College of Pharmacy: “This study aims to analyze the characteristics, increase rates, affecting factors, and budget impacts of products that have increased price through the negotiation system. Between 2007 and 2022, there were price increase negotiations over 244 items. Of these, price increase negotiations were successful for 217 items, resulting in an agreement rate of 89%. The average rate of price increase for the agreed-upon products was 37.8%, and the overall budget increase for drugs with price increases (n = 217) was approximately 24.5%. Budget impact of each variable of the negotiated agreements showed that the number of negotiated agreement items was smaller after 2015 than before 2015, but each total budget impact (initial budget, increased budget, and final budget) and the average budget impact were higher. Although domestic companies accounted for a larger overall budget, the average budget per item was larger for multinational companies.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The correlation analysis of the ratio of price increase and budget impact variables showed that the ratio of price increase was positively and significantly correlated with the increased budget, while it was negatively but not significantly correlated with the initial and final budgets. The South Korean model of increasing reimbursement prices in public insurance for drugs at risk of shortages serves as an exemplary case for not only securing patient access but also considering budget management.”

For more information on this research see: Price increase negotiations to address drug shortages in South Korea’s national health insurance. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2023,14. (Frontiers in Pharmacology - http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/pharmacology). The publisher for Frontiers in Pharmacology is Frontiers Media S.A.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2023.1307462.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Seung Rae Yu, College of Pharmacy, Dong-Duk Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Jong Hyuk Lee.

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