Drug price cuts will be applied in bulk next month

as a result of the drug price ceiling reevaluations...price adjustments following actual transaction price reevaluations will be postponed

Around 3,220 items were subject to negotiations...pricing adjustments will likely be made on fewer products

A number of products are expected to receive price cuts next month as a result of the second round of reevaluations the government conducted on the insurance price ceiling of listed drugs.

 

The drug price adjustments, which were initially set to be applied in January, were pushed back to February.

 

Also, in consideration of the returns and difference settlements that need to be made by pharmacies, sufficient time is expected to be given between the announcement and the effective date of the pricing adjustments.

 

According to industry sources on the 17th, the second round of negotiations after reevaluation of the insurance price ceiling of listed drugs will be completed this month and be reported to the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee (HIPDC).

 

About 3,220 products were subject to the second round of negotiations.

 

As this includes all of the evaluated items, some that are not subject to pricing adjustments are also included in the negotiations.

 

Therefore, it is expected that the actual number of products that receive price cuts will be fewer than this.

 

In the first round of reevaluations that were conducted in September last year, 12,800 items were subject to negotiations, but 7,400 items were applied pricing adjustments.

 

The second round of price ceiling reassessment will cover some specialty oral drugs and aseptic drugs that were included in the bioequivalence demonstration by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2020.

 

The second round of reevaluations included some prescribed oral drugs and aseptic drugs that were required to demonstrate bioequivalence by the MFDS in 2020.

 

Initially, the Ministry of Health and Welfare had planned to apply the drug price adjustments in January after reporting the results to HPIDC in December last year.

 

However, it was postponed in February due to concerns about the burden borne by pharmacies.

 

Also, drug price ceiling adjustments following the investigation into actual transaction prices had been set to be applied in January at the time.

 

However, this was also postponed thereafter.

 

Therefore, the adjustment period will likely be further delayed to after March, as the results were not reported to HIPDC’s meeting this time.

 

The pricing adjustment date for the second round of price ceiling reevaluations is also expected to be a few days after the first of next month, just as it had been in the first round of price ceiling reevaluations.

 

In the first round, the adjustments were announced on Aug.

 

23 last year, notifying its implementation on Sept.

 

1, but the actual implementations were made on Sept.

 

5 to account for return and settlement confusion among pharmacies.

 

Meanwhile, the reevaluation of the price ceiling of listed drugs is being conducted to maintain or reduce the price of listed drugs depending on whether the drug meets the requirements of self-bioequivalence testing and DMF listing.

 

If the listed drug satisfies both requirements, the ceiling price is maintained as is; however, if the drug satisfies only one of the two requirements, the price is reduced to 85%, and to 72.25% if both requirements are not met.