9th meeting held for external reference pricing reevals

“but the issue needs further discussion”

Government’s proposal to use the A8 average price excluding the highest-lowest price will remain as is

Disagreement on which drugs should be excluded from revaluation, method of searching overseas drug prices, the lower limit for markdowns, etc.

The government and the pharmaceutical industry held the 9th meeting on external reference pricing reevaluations but reportedly decided to continue discussions.

 

Initially, the 9th meeting was supposed to be the last in the opinion-gathering process, but further meetings were deemed inevitable.  According to industry sources, the government and the pharmaceutical industry held the 9th round of talks on the external reference pricing reevaluations at the Kukje Electronic Center in Seocho-gu on the 12th.

 

This is the 9th round of talks since it began in November last year.

 

As the government’s proposal for the method of comparison came out at the 8th meeting, the 9th meeting was expected to be the time to refine the final draft based on industry opinions.

 

The industry also needed time to review the proposal, which was why the 9th meeting was pushed back to June instead of May after the 8th was held at the end of April.

 

At the 9th meeting, the pharmaceutical industry made various demands.

 

Although there was disagreement on the government’s method of comparing the A8 average price, which excludes the highest and lowest prices, the method is expected to be maintained as is.

 

However, the parties reached a consensus that further discussion is needed on which drugs should be excluded from revaluations, the method of searching for foreign drug prices, and on whether to put a lower limit on the rate of drug price cuts.

 

The 10th meeting is expected to be held after July to discuss the specifics.

 

An industry official who attended the meeting said, "The industry made a lot of suggestions and decided to continue on the discussions.

 

However, there seems to be no room for change in the comparison method proposed by the government."