NA presses for Targrisso’s reimb in the first line

Vice-Minister Minsoo Park plans to accept the request

The petition review subcommittee decides to continue its review on the 18th...MOHW·HIRA “will make efforts for its prompt review’

The NA Health and Welfare Committee decided that reimbursement for AstraZeneca's lung cancer drug ‘Tagrisso (osimertinib)’ in the first line is necessary and requested its prompt reimbursement listing to the government.

 

Min-soo Park, the 2nd vice minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service also agreed to the National Assembly's decision and promised to promptly go through the reimbursement procedure.

 

On the 18th, the Health and Welfare Committee's Petition Review Subcommittee (Chair Young-Hee Choi) reviewed the petition which requested reimbursement of the lung cancer drug Tagrisso as a first-line treatment.

 

The subcommittee members decided to continue to review such drug-related issues including Tagrisso without immediately deciding whether to refer the petition for consideration to the plenary session.

 

Its aim seems to be to closely monitor the progress of the petition until the results of the drug petition issues including Tagrisso's first-line reimbursement are confirmed.

 

In Korea, Tagrisso is putting a heavy burden on cancer patients and their families due to its high drug price and non-reimbursement even though it has a superior effect as a first-line treatment in lung cancer.

 

This is why the issue was submitted to the petition subcommittee, after achieving 50,000 National Assembly petition consents.

 

Tagrisso had received marketing authorization from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a first-line treatment for EGFR-positive non-small-cell cancer patients diagnosed with exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R substitution mutations and as a second-line or higher therapy for NSCLC patients with positive EGFR T790M mutations.

 

However, its reimbursement has only been approved as a second or higher line of treatment since December 5, 2017.

 

Currently, the reimbursement standards for Tagrisso as a first-line treatment were set to be established in March this year at the Cancer Disease Review Committee, and the agenda is being deliberated by the Economic Evaluation Subcommittee.

 

The drug must still undergo Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee evaluations, HIRA-pharmaceutical company negotiations, and review by the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee to receive reimbursement.

 

In response to the petition, the Health and Welfare Committee's expert members acknowledged the need for Tagrisso’s reimbursement in the first line.

 

The experts believed that there is a need to improve public health and ease the economic burden by reinforcing patient access to new drugs for severe diseases.

 

Also, MOHW and HIRA announced that it agrees on the need for Tagrisso's reimbursement in the first line and will make efforts to deliberate it as soon as possible.

 

The MOHW said, “The agenda is currently under HIRA review, and HIRA will be reviewing the reimbursement extension after fully considering its cost-effectiveness." HIRA said, “Our Economic Evaluation Subcommittee and Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee will conduct deliberations based on data that will be submitted by the pharmaceutical company.

 

We will work to proceed with the deliberation as soon as possible.” The validity and urgency of the first-line reimbursement of Tagrisso have also been known to have been stressed during the Petition Subcommittee’s review.

 

The members of the subcommittee had asked Vice Minister Park to “conduct the reimbursement review as quickly as possible,” and Vice Minister Park accepted the request and promised their prompt reimbursement.