Patients suffer from quarrels between companies & the HIRA

The Korea Alliance of Patients Organization holds a news conference in front of Ono Pharma Korea·MSD

Patients urged Ono Pharma Korea, BMS Korea, and MSD Korea to come up with a reasonable burden-sharing plan that the health authorities could accept.

 

Patients have been urging to expand the health benefits of Opdivo (Nivolumab) and Keytruda (Pembrolizumab), which have various therapeutic indications, such as lung cancer and kidney cancer.

 

It is a request to urgently improve the reality that Opdivo and Keytruda have failed in the HIRA’s Cancer Drug Review Committee due to controversy over the financial burden of health insurance due to high prices.

 

On the 14th, at 10 am, the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization held a press conference in front of Ono Pharma Korea, urging the expansion of health benefit for immune cancer drugs.

 

At 1 pm on the same day, the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization will hold a press conference with the same purpose at the Seoul Women's Plaza.

 

The Korea Alliance of Patients Organization was scheduled to hold an interview in front of Ono Pharma Korea and MSD Korea, the developer of Opdivo and Keytruda respectively.

 

Changes in place were inevitable as meetings and interviews became impossible due to the occurrence of COVID-19 confirmed patients in Seoul Square, where MSD resides.

 

The patient's demand is that the developer & the HIRA should stop negotiating drug prices and prepare a reasonable level of financial sharing that the financial authorities will accept.

 

The domestically approved immune anticancer drugs include Ono Pharma·BMS' Opdivo, MSD's Keytruda, Roche's Tecentriq (Atezolizumab), AstraZeneca's Imfinzi (Durvalumab), and BMS' Yervoy (Ipilimumab).

 

Indications are rapidly expanding from non-small cell lung cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, head and neck cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, etc., Looking at the health insurance coverage, Opdivo, Keytruda and Tecentriq were reimbursed as non-small cell lung cancer, Opdivo and Keytruda as melanoma, and Tecentriq as bladder cancer.

 

In order to receive treatment with immunosuppressive drugs for indications other than the indications is reimbursed, it costs from ₩ tens of millions to more than ₩100 million.

 

The Korea Alliance of Patients Organization said to improve this reality.

 

"The quality of life of terminally ill cancer patients living in the era of targeted anti-cancer drugs, followed by targeted anti-cancer drugs, has improved in a different dimension than when the first chemotherapy was administered," the organization said.

 

"It is an urgent reason to increase the supply of immuno-cancer drugs." The organization said, “Pharmaceutical companies seeking to get high drug prices and financial authorities trying to save money on health insurance are not making any concession over the expansion of the benefits of anti-cancer drugs.” "We only accepted two indications for head and neck cancer and eliminated indications for kidney and stomach cancer." The organization said that Keytruda’s company also did not accept the expansion of the primary treatment reimbursement standard for non-small cell lung cancer.

 

The HIRA’s Cancer Drug Review Committee asked pharmaceutical companies to prepare a rational financial sharing plan.

 

The organization criticized the patient for dying of life-sustaining or cure-out opportunities while governments and pharmaceutical companies struggled with the price of drugs, such as a proverb saying when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

 

The Korea Kidneycancer association also issued a statement saying that the HIRA’s Cancer Drug Review Committee would speed up the registration of Opdivo for disqualification due to the financial burden.

 

The organization also said that it was difficult to understand that Opdivo did not get kidney cancer benefits from the HIRA’s Cancer Drug Review Committee.

 

According to the organization, the cost of the immuno-cancer drug is close to ₩6 million to ₩10 million per month, but it is also important for the health and financial benefits of the health insurance company, but the most important thing is patient’s life.

 

The organization said that it is necessary to extend the patient's life by using the resources used in the patient support program that is conducted before the reimbursement to reduce the price.