No.1 anticancer drug in Rx sales is Palonosetron & Tamoxifen

Oxaliplatin for gastric cancer / Trastuzumab for breast cancer

Based on the number of prescriptions, gastric cancer patients were prescribed 'Palonosetron' and breast cancer patients were prescribed 'Tamoxifen' the most.

 

The HIRA released a retrospective study on preparing a platform for real-world evidence (RWE) for drug reimbursement management (Research Director Dr.

 

Dongsuk Kim, Dr.

 

Jihye Byun).

 

This study explains the current status of medicines for gastric and breast cancer patients.

 

According to the research report, the most frequent medicines for gastric cancer patients in 2018 were Palonosetron(20.3%), Oxaliplatin (20.1%), and Megestrol (18.5%), accounting for more than half of the prescription rate.

 

.Also, from 1st to 3rd place were the same as in 2017

 

.Capecitabine, which was ranked 5th in 2017, ranked 4th, accounting for 17% of the prescription rate in 2018

 

.The fifth was Fluorouracil

 

.The ranking changed when it was based on drug cost

 

.In the case of gastric cancer high frequency drugs in 2018, Oxaliplatin accounted for ₩17.3 billion (22.6%) out of the total ₩76.4 billion

 

.Ramucirumab (16%), Imatinib (14%), Tegafur (9.4%), and Trastuzumab (7.5%) were followed

 

.

Looking at the top 20 anticancer drugs used by breast cancer patients based on the number of prescriptions, Tamoxifen (23.9%) was the same as in 2016 and 2017, and Trastuzumab was 14.2% as the second highest in 2018

 

.Letrozole is the same as in 2017, but the prescription ratio is 13.1%, which has increased the number of claims compared to 2017

 

.Goserelin (9.6%) and Cyclophosphamide (9.1%) ranked 4th and 5th

 

.

In the case of drug costs for breast cancer treatment in 2018, there was a change in ranking except for Trastuzumab (25.3%), which ranked first

 

.In August of that year, Trastuzumab emtansine was second with 9.9%, while Pertuzumab (9.7%) and Palbociclib (7.9%) ranked third and fourth

 

.Letrozole, which was second in 2017, dropped to sixth with 6.7%, and Doxetaxel (7.8%), which was third, fell to fifth

 

.ult of examining the drug costs by dividing the anticancer drugs into group 1 and group 2, Doxetaxel ranked first in the gastric cancer frequency in group 1 anticancer drugs in 2018, with a high drug cost with ₩831 million, followed by Leucovorin with ₩498 million

 

.Fluorouracil and Cisplatin accounted for ₩260 million and ₩194 million respectively

 

.In group 2 anticancer drugs, Oxaliplatin were most expensive, and Ramucirumab was second

 

.In 2016 and 2017, TGO (tegafur+gimeracil+oteracil) and Trastuzumab, which were second and third, ranked third and fourth

 

.The first to third anticancer drugs in the 1st group of frequent breast cancer were Goserelin, Tamoxifen, and Doxorubicn, which were the same from 2016 to 2018

 

.In group 2 anticancer drugs, Trastuzumab was ranked first, with 38.7%

 

.In 2018, the total number of gastric cancer patients was 177,271, which is increasing every year, and the total number of breast cancer patients is 199,553, an increase of about 9% every year

 

.Like the number of patients, the number of claims increased every year

 

.In 2018, the cost of treatment was about ₩622 billion for gastric cancer and ₩962.2 billion for breast cancer, and ₩3.5 million for gastric cancer and ₩4.8 million for breast cancer were spent per patient

 

.In terms of anticancer drug costs, gastric cancer in 2018 was ₩76.4 billion and breast cancer was ₩340 billion, up 11.5% and 30% respectively compared to 2017.