MSD Korea’s increase in the supply price of Gardasil 9, a vaccine for preventing cervical cancer, has faced resistance not only from the medical community but the general public.
On March 29, an internet user submitted a petition on Cheong Wa Dae’s petition website, opposing the price hike of Gardasil 9 and demanding reimbursement for the vaccine.
Early in March, MSD Korea said it would raise three vaccines' prices and placed a month of notice period for sending letters to hospitals and updating information with drug sales representatives.
The three vaccines with planned price increases are Gardasil and Gardasil 9, HPV vaccines against cervical cancer, and RotaTeq, a vaccine for preventing gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus.
MSD Korea plans to raise the prices of Gardasil and Gardasil 9 by 15 percent and RotaTeq, by 17 percent.
The company said the price hike was inevitable because of the steady rise of vaccine production costs and quality control. However, clinics and hospitals complain because they have to tell consumers to pay more for the vaccination.
Some hospitals ordered MSD vaccines on a large scale before the prices begin to go up.
In general, a vaccine company identifies the average amount of vaccines for each hospital and clinic and distributes them accordingly. However, some clinics and hospitals learned about the price hike plan and ordered MSD vaccines in a large quantity.
A drug sales rep at MSD said a clinic owner visited the company to take issue with unfair trading, accompanying a lawyer.
As confusion mounted at hospitals, the Korean Association of Obstetrics & Gynecology (KAOG) criticized MSD Korea’s unanimous price increase of the vaccines.
In April, consumers began to pay higher prices for MSD vaccines, and one of them filed a national petition.
“Gardasil is one of the few injections that can prevent cancer such as cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, and anal cancer. Not only women but men should get the immunization,” the petitioner said.
Gardasil 9 costs about 150,000-200,000 won ($133-179) per injection, and as the inoculation requires three shots, the entire vaccination costs about 450,000-600,000 won.
The petitioner said a 15 percent hike from April means that patients have to pay 500,000-700,000 won for Gardasil 9, which was non-sense. “I oppose the price increase of Gardasil 9 injection and demand insurance benefits for the vaccine,” the petitioner said.
The petition garnered 12,000 votes from internet users as of Thursday.
Mindful of the public sentiment, MSD Korea said it was aware of the petition on the presidential site amid the rising awareness of HPV-related diseases such as cervical cancer and the need for HPV vaccines.
As for the KAOG’s calling the price hike “a unanimous notice,” MSD Korea said it felt sorry that doctors could not receive sufficient explanation about the price increase of Gardasil. “Doctors must have felt uncomfortable because Gardasil and Gardasil 9 prices went up for the first time since they arrived in Korea,” the company said.
“Since the announcement of the price increase, we are making all efforts to reduce inconvenience for physicians and consumers. We will continue to do our best to prevent confusion at hospitals,” it added.