Studies from Chung-Ang University Provide New Data on Orphan Drugs (Pricing and Reimbursement Policy for New Orphan Drugs In South Korea: Focused On Patient Accessibility and Budget Impact): Drugs and Therapies – Orphan Drugs

2022 DEC 02 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at South Korea Daily Report -- Investigators publish new report on Drugs and Therapies - Orphan Drugs. According to news reporting originating in Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “This study aims to analyze the policy and its effects as they apply to new orphan drug (OD) and the budget impact after reimbursement listing in South Korean National Health Insurance (NHI). We analyzed 198 new drugs listed by South Korea’s NHI from July 2007 to March 2017.”

Financial support for this research came from Chung-Ang University.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Chung-Ang University, “A comparison of the time to listing for ODs and non-orphan drugs (NODs) was conducted via the Mann-Whitney U test. The budget impact of ODs was analyzed by the NHI claim data from the listing date of new drugs until 31 December 2018. An analysis of the time shows that the period (median) for NOD (13.2 months) was shorter than for OD (17.4 months) (Mann-Whitney U test: p = 0.018). The annualized budget impact of OD was 4,967,049 US$/year and that of NOD was 7,800,924 US$/year. Additionally, the percentage of oncology orphan drugs in the total pharmaceutical expenditure was 1.1%; as such, the percentage of non-oncology orphan drug was only 0.9%. There has been no significant evidence for patient accessibility improvement regarding new ODs.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The proportion of ODs in South Korea’s NHI total pharmaceutical expenditure is not high and the proportion of ODs among new drugs is even lower.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Pricing and Reimbursement Policy for New Orphan Drugs In South Korea: Focused On Patient Accessibility and Budget Impact. Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs, 2022;10(1):23-28. Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs can be contacted at: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2-4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon OR14 4RN, Oxon, England.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Jong Hyuk Lee, Chung-Ang University, College of Pharmacy, Seoul 06974, South Korea.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1080/21678707.2022.2134007. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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