New law proposed for the cancer and rare disease fund

To strengthen access to ultra-high-priced drugs

Will use the government budget and lottery funds as financial resources

Rep. Myeong-ok Seo submitted a related bill to the National Assembly

A bill to establish a new fund for cancer and rare diseases to strengthen patient access to ultra-high-priced drugs has been proposed to the National Assembly.

 

The fund will be raised through transfers and deposits from other funds, such as the lottery fund.

 

On the 24th, National Assembly member Myeong-ok Seo (People Power Party), a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, announced that she had submitted a bill to establish the Cancer Management Fund and the Rare Disease Management Fund.

 

The main points of the bill include ▲the establishment of a cancer management fund for the prevention and treatment of cancer (amendment to the Cancer Management Act), ▲the establishment of a rare disease fund for the prevention and treatment of rare diseases (amendment to the Rare Disease Management Act), ▲the establishment of a basis for the establishment of the fund in the National Finance Act (amendment to the National Finance Act), and ▲the establishment of grounds for the use of the lottery fund (amendment to the Lottery Tickets and Lottery Fund Act).

 

According to the data that Rep.

 

Seo received from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, it took an average of 332 days for an anticancer drug to be listed for reimbursement in Korea from 2014 to 2024.

 

In particular, in the case of anticancer drugs for blood cancer and lung cancer, there were cases where it took 600 to 800 days to listing.

 

To address this, the UK operates an anticancer drug fund and a rare drug fund.

 

Italy also has a rare disease drug fund that is financed with 5% pharmaceutical sales promotional expenses and government funds.

 

Although there have been attempts to establish a new cancer management fund in Korea, the attempts have been frustrated by the opposition of financial authorities, with repeated calls on the need for realistic solutions to raise necessary finances.

 

“Currently, about KRW 85 billion of the National Health Promotion Fund is being spent on cancer prevention and treatment, so it is not impossible to use it as the source of funding as it is while using a portion of the lottery proceeds, which have been increasing rapidly recently,” explained Seo.

 

According to recent reports, lottery sales have risen by an average of KRW 450 billion per year since 2020.

 

Next year, lottery ticket sales are expected to exceed KRW 8 trillion for the first time in history.

 

“In a situation where it is becoming structurally difficult to apply health insurance reimbursement to treatments for patients with cancer and rare diseases, the establishment of the fund is a matter directly related to the lives of the people,” said Rep.

 

Seo.

 

“I hope that the bill will prompt forward-looking discussions.”