Heart failure patients with an ejection fraction rate of greater than 40 percent can use Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) regardless of the chronicity of the disease or treatment environment, a recent study has shown.Dr. Robert Mentz of Duke University Medical Center unveiled the result of the PARAGL
In late 2020, ahead of the Organon spinoff, a picket was put up at the MSD Korea office, crying against "tosagupang" – an ancient idiom that means killing a dog after hunting is over.Two and a half years later, the same pickets appeared in the same place.MSD Korea’s labor union held a picket on the
Tagrisso (osimertinib), AstraZeneca’s third-generation EGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), has opened a new way for customized treatment of locally progressive or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).AZ has recently confirmed Tagrisso’s progression-f
Astellas Pharma has set about to rectify the reimbursement track for Xtandi (enzalutamide), its prostate cancer treatment that caused confusion in the clinical field by receiving selective reimbursement for the same indications differently from competitor drugs.Astellas recently submitted an applica
MSD Korea recently announced it would abolish the General Medicine (GM) business responsible for its diabetes treatment and recommended voluntary retirement for about 100 executives and employees.In response, its union rejected the plan altogether and vowed to struggle against it.On May 9, MSD Korea
MSD, which is known as Merck in the U.S. and Canada, has announced that it will be transferring the sales rights of its diabetes drug Januvia (sitagliptin) to a local pharmaceutical firm Chong Kun Dang. Januvia’s patent is to expire in September this year. In addition, MSD Korea will be shutting dow
Opdivo (nivolumab), an anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, will likely receive insurance benefits soon as the primary treatment of progressive stomach cancer.The agenda item on expanding Opdivo’s reimbursement passed the fifth drug reimbursement evaluation committee meeting under the auspices of the Health Ins
There are people experiencing difficulty in everyday life due to unspeakable pains, such as diarrhea, bloody stool, fecal urgency, and stomachache. They are patients with ulcerative colitis.Ulcerative colitis is a severe disease that not only gives pain to patients in everyday life but accompanies a
Daiichi Sankyo Korea’s Enhertu (ingredient: trastuzumab druxtecan), a treatment for breast and gastric cancer, has passed the first gateway for winning insurance coverage, after garnering more than 50,000 votes of patients and guardians in a national online petition to push for reimbursement.The tre
“Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan), an antibody-drug conjugate, demonstrated strong cell toxicity effects, bringing about new changes in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer treatment that had had unmet clinical needs. Based on efficacy and safety in various clinical trials, Enhertu has already tak
As expensive new anticancer drugs keep coming, the government must revise the current financial sharing system that offers excessive patient benefits to improve health insurance’s finance and expand patients’ access to treatments.Professor Kim Seong-bae of the Oncology Department at Asan Medical Cen
Several targeted agents for lung cancer approved through fast-track review due to their innovativeness and urgency of diseases have become useless faced with the wall called the “insurance benefits.”That’s because seven targeted therapies targeting rare genetic mutations to treat non-small cell lung
The changes in sales right for Gavreto (pralsetinib), an RET (rearranged during transaction) inhibitor, may likely negatively influence the ongoing review for its insurance benefits, drawing the industry’s attention.Roche recently discontinued its cooperation contract with Blueprint Medicines Corp.,
The domestic diabetes treatment market will likely undergo fierce competition as new SGLT-2 inhibitors, including the generic products of patent-expired Forxiga (dapagliflozin), new drug enavogliflozin, and other combo drugs will hit the market next month. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has put
Daiichi Sankyo Korea has reportedly completed submitting supplementary data as requested by the government regarding providing insurance benefits for its breast cancer treatment Enhertu, raising expectations about the issue’s re-discussion scheduled for May 3.According to sources, the Korean offshoo
Thermo Fisher Scientific said it would establish five to six specialized contract laboratories to expand the utilization of its recently launched lung cancer-specific NGS test, the Oncomine Dx Target Test (ODxTT), in Korea.ODxTT is capable of detecting single nucleotide variants (SNVs), deletions an
Recently, AbbVie and J&J voluntarily deleted the indications for mantel cell lymphoma (MCL) and marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) of their first BTK inhibitor Imbruvica (ibrutinib), putting the break on their march to expanding applications.However, according to officials at their Korean offshoots, the m
MSD’s lung cancer immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) has confirmed long-term clinical benefits for all metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients, including PD-L1 expression negative type, through consistent study, solidifying its evidence as a global treatment option.MSD Korea unveiled an i
Following the recent failures of MET inhibitors to receive insurance benefits, the anticancer-targeted agent makers’ attention focuses on the deliberation results of RET inhibitors.The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) currently conducts the review of two RET inhibitors and targe
A factor as important as efficacy and safety for a new drug is its access. No matter how a new drug improves survival and side effects, it is a pie in the sky if patients cannot use the medicine. The easiest and hardest way to increase a new drug’s access in Korea is its national health insurance re