Korea’s 30th novel medicine K-Cab Tab. (ingredient: tegoprazan) will receive insurance coverage, eight months after winning approval, the government said. The gastric acid inhibitor will be reimbursable from March 1.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s health insurance policy review committee set the price of K-Cab Tab. 50mg at 1,300 won ($1.16) per pill on Tuesday.

For the drug pricing, the government took into account the drug’s economic value evaluated by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service’s drug reimbursement evaluation committee, the total cost of alternative medicine, development cost, the alternative drug’s weighted average price.

The Korean Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, the Korean Association of Internal Medicine, and the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy suggested that K-Cab had clinical significance as an appropriate treatment to overcome the shortcoming of conventional therapies such as proton pump inhibitors (PPI).

K-Cab is a treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD), developed by CJ HealthCare. It became the first potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) to obtain local approval.

The treatment overcame the limitations of conventional PPIs that were prescribed for GORD. K-Cab showed faster efficacy than PPIs and blocked gastric acid secretion at night.

In a clinical trial on patients with erosive GORD, K-Cab showed non-inferiority in the eight-week cumulative healing rate, compared to esomeprazole 40mg, a PPI, in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

CJ HealthCare is exporting K-Cab aggressively. In 2015, the company inked a $95.3 million licensing-out deal with China’s Luoxin. In 2018, it also agreed to license out the drug to Vietnam’s Vimedimex Medi Pharma.

In February, it signed an $84 million worth deal with Mexico-based Laboratorios Carnot to supply the drug for 10 years.