Multinational drugmakers are demanding Seoul’s quicker approval for insurance benefits of cancer and rare drugs for the sake of patients while ignoring the existing system to expedite the process, a government official said.Korea’s “Drug Approval-Drug Price Evaluation Linkage System” allows pharmaceutical companies to apply for reimbursements to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Servi
Novo Nordisk Pharma Korea said it has expanded the sales of Saxenda (ingredient: liraglutide 3.0 mg), an obesity treatment as a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist, to 10 general hospitals, including Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH). Released in March, the drug is now available at 10 general hospitals, including SNUH, Bundang Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hosp
Government regulators’ refusals of off-label drugs surged last year. Off-label use refers to prescribing drugs for unapproved indications for medical needs.If a medical institution decides that a specific unapproved drug is medically valid for treatment through consultations with its multidisciplinary committee, it can apply for approval of the off-label use to the Health Insurance Review and
Korean drug exporters are paying attention to how China’s exemption of import duties on some medicines from May 1 will affect their business.The Chinese authorities decided to scrap tariffs on 28 drugs, including cancer therapies, from May, according to a recent report by Kim Seong-ae, an official at the Beijing Office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).Chinese Prime Mi
Merck Korea and the health authorities have renewed their risk-sharing agreement over Erbitux (ingredient: cetuximab), a treatment for metastatic head, neck, and colorectal cancer. RSA refers to an agreement between a pharmaceutical company and the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) to share the responsibility for uncertainties regarding a drug’s efficacy.According to the NHIS, Erbit
As biotech stocks on KOSPI and KOSDAQ have turned downward since mid-April, those on KONEX followed suit. KONEX is for small- and medium-sized firms.Top 10 biotech companies on KONEX by market cap had seen their share prices go up until mid-April, compared to early this year. However, with analysts continuing to warn of bubbles in the biotech sector, most of their stock prices have been in a l
AstraZeneca Korea’s breast cancer treatment Faslodex (ingredient: fulvestrant) should benefit from insurance coverage, an oncology expert said.Faslodex obtained approval in November as an endocrine therapy for postmenopausal patients with progressive or metastatic breast cancer who are hormone receptor positive (HR+) and human epithelial cell growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-). The trea
Biotech and pharmaceutical shares are bouncing back from recent massive slides amid controversy over Samsung BioLogics’ alleged window dressing.Major drugmakers and biotech firms listed on KOSPI and KOSDAQ all rose on Wednesday from the previous day.Samsung BioLogics shares also went up by 7.4 percent on Wednesday, closing at 398,000 won ($369) per share. The stock price has recovered to t
Germany’s logistics and packaging company Va-Q-Tec said it would significantly expand investment in Asia, including Korea, to strengthen its service for biopharmaceutical products.Moritz von Wysiecki, head of global marketing at Va-Q-Tec, held a news conference at Park Hyatt Seoul on Tuesday, the first since the German firm set up a Korean unit in 2011.“Va-Q-Tec’s global revenue has been g
Pharmaceutical and biotech shares are suffering a massive blow from repercussions of Samsung BioLogics’ alleged window dressing. Pharmaceuticals had been losing steam after the financial regulator’s tighter monitoring of listed drugmakers and analysts’ warning of a bubble in the biotech sector.Biotech and pharmaceutical stock prices have been falling since the Financial Supervisory Service sai
The pharmaceutical industry is paying attention to how much the price of MSD Korea’s immunotherapy Keytruda (ingredient: pembrolizumab) will be lowered if it wins the first-line treatment status.MSD Korea is in price negotiations with the government after applying for approval of Keytruda as the first-line therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the talks are not making much p
Whether the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in June will drive up recently depressed Korean biotech shares is drawing attention.Recently, local biotech stock prices have suffered declines amid some analysts’ warning of bubbles in the biotech sector and the financial regulator’s tighter control on accounting.Stocks of SillaJen, Oscotec, Theragen E
Guerbet Korea, the supplier of contrast media Lipiodol, is being criticized for threatening the health authorities that it would suspend the drug supply unless they agree to raise the drug price. Civic groups, including Pharmacists for Healthy Society (PHS) and Healthy World Network (HWN), said on Monday the Korean unit of the French company was making an absurd request to raise the price of L
GC Pharma had the largest number of patents among top-ranking local drugmakers last year, industry data showed Thursday.GC Pharma, formerly called Green Cross, had 115 patents and utility models among the 10 domestic pharmaceutical firms with the most significant sales in 2017. The patent comparison excluded design and trademark.Daewoong ranked second with 95 (89 patents, six utility model
Pharmaceutical and biotech shares have recently suffered declines, but most of them have risen compared to early this year, stock market data showed Tuesday.Among 54 pharmaceutical and biotech firms listed on KOSDAQ, 43 companies’ closing prices on Monday were higher than those on Jan. 2. The rest 11 fell.Sam Chun Dang Pharm enjoyed the most substantial stock price gain, with its shares so
Three Korean treatments were included in 537 innovative drug candidates for neurological disorders in a report by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).The three pipelines are ViroMed’s VM202 for diabetic neuropathy, Api Meds’ Apitox for autoimmune diseases, and Nature Cell’s stem cell therapy AstroStem for Alzheimer’s disease.“The 537 medicines in development re
Novo Nordisk Korea recently boasted that its insulin product Tresiba (ingredient: insulin degludec) topped the next-generation basal insulin market, citing outpatient prescription sales data.However, Sanofi-Aventis Korea’s Toujeo (ingredient: insulin glargine) beat Tresiba in the number of patients, industry data showed.Tresiba ranked first in annual outpatient prescriptions last year,
Korean units of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer showed the highest propensity to dividend among subsidiaries in Korea owned by multinational pharmaceutical firms.Dividend propensity refers to a proportion of dividend payouts out of net profits. As Korean units of non-listed foreign firms send dividends to parent companies, high dividend propensity has been controversial.According to each
Analysts are warning investors that biotech shares could be overpriced, as stock prices of such firms went down despite a rise in KOSPI recently.Most of pharmaceutical and biotech companies on the main bourse KOSPI and the secondary KOSDAQ suffered stock price declines on Wednesday. Except for Boryung Pharmaceutical’s 1.79 percent gain and Reyon Pharmaceutical’s 0.39 percent rise, other dr
AstraZeneca Korea’s outpatient prescription drug sales expanded by 7 billion won ($6.5 million) in the first quarter from a year earlier, while those of Novartis Korea plunged by 13 billion won, industry data showed Wednesday.According to data from U-BIST, the top nine drugmakers in outpatient prescriptions in the first quarter were Pfizer Korea with 105.6 billion won sales, Novartis Korea wit