Bill for Rotarix·RotaTeq to be covered by NIP

"reduce public burden"

Costs around ₩200,000-₩300,000… 220,000 infants and young children were not vaccinated during the past five years

NA member Bae Hyun-jin “No infants should be left uninoculated due to financial reasons.”

A bill to promote the health of infants and young children while reducing consumer burden by including rotavirus vaccines in the National Immunization Program (NIP) is being promoted.

 

If passed, the bill will turn GSK’s Rotarix and MSD’s RotaTeq that are already being used in Korea into free national vaccinations.

 

Since the WHO recommends mandatory vaccination of the rotavirus vaccine and the nature of the virus that is highly infectious among infants and young children, attention is focused on the legislative direction of the bill.

 

On the 18th, NA member Bae Hyun-jin of the People Power Party announced that she had submitted a bill as representative for the partial amendment of the ‘Infectious Disease Control And Prevention Act’ to incorporate such changes.

 

The incidence of rotavirus infection is very high among children aged under 5 to the extent that most of these infants are infected at least once with the virus.

 

NA member Bae Hyun-jin expressed concerns that some parents give up rotavirus vaccinations due to the high cost even though rotavirus vaccinations are recommended for all newborns after 6 weeks of age.

 

According to the KDCA’s Immunization Registry System, 7.9%, 21,728 of the 274,221 newborns eligible for vaccinations did not receive rotavirus vaccines in 2020.

 

Statistics over the past 5 years show that 14.8% of the infants and young children eligible for vaccinations – 222,565 – did not receive rotavirus vaccines.

 

Rotavirus vaccines are relatively high-priced, costing around ₩200,000-₩300,000.

 

The two rotavirus vaccines currently sold in the market are GSK’s Rotarix and MSD’s RotaTeq.

 

Rotarix is given in 2 doses, RotaTeq in 3.

 

The two vaccines cost ₩70,000-₩100,000 and ₩100,000-₩130,000 per shot, respectively.

 

In total, Rotarix costs around ₩200,000-₩260,000 and RotaTeq ₩210,000-₩300,000 to get fully vaccinated.

 

The issue regarding the price of rotavirus vaccines has risen several times intermittently.

 

GSK and MSD had raised the price of Rotarix and RotaTeq by 12% and 17% respectively, increasing the burden borne by consumers.

 

Rotavirus vaccines are considered essential for newborns, and therefore its consumers are highly sensitive to their change in price.

 

As a result, some local governments have implemented policies to provide free rotavirus vaccines for infants.

 

Bae believes that the government should pay for the cost of the rotavirus vaccine inoculations to prevent enteritis in infants and young children, contribute to promoting public health, and reduce the burden borne by the consumers.

 

Therefore, the bill contains a plan to include rotavirus infection as a disease eligible for regular vaccinations.

 

Bae said, “The reality is that the need for rotavirus vaccination has been discussed for a long time but was excluded from support due to its high cost.

 

However, no infants nor young children should be left out, unable to receive essential vaccinations due to financial reasons.”