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- 2026-07-01 12:03:09
- Company
- Korean companies win first round of Entresto patent suit
- by Kim, Jin-Gu Aug 08, 2022 06:09am
- Pic of Entresto. The first patent dispute over Novartis’s heart failure treatment ‘Entresto (valsartan+ sacubitril) ended with the victory of the Korean generic companies. The exclusive market approval (first generic exclusivity) that received attention is expected to be granted to 10 companies including Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, with the possibility of Daewoong Pharmaceuticals additionally receiving generic exclusivity. However, the industry analysis is that there remain risks for the generic companies' early release of Entresto latecomers as the original company Novartis has announced its plan to appeal, and separate legal disputes such as patent infringement suits and injunction applications are still ongoing. ◆10 companies overcome the fourfold patent hurdle…meets first generic exclusivity requirements According to industry sources on the 28th, the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of the generic companies in the 2 trials to confirm the passive scope of rights of Entresto’s composition patent that was filed by 9 companies including Chong Kun Dang against Novartis. Nine generic companies including Chong Kun Dang, YooYoung Pharmaceutical, Hanlim Pharm, Hana Pharm, Ahn-Gook Pharmaceutical, Genuone Sciences, GenuPharma, Samjin Pharm, Elyson Pharm received the favorable ruling. With the ruling, on which companies will be receiving generic exclusivity has been somewhat revealed. Hanmi Pharmaceuticals was the first company to overcome all 4 of Entresto’s patents, and with the addition of the 9 companies that received the recent ruling, a total of 10 companies have now paved the way for the early release of their generics. The companies have obtained the ‘first to request for trial’ requirement by filing claims from January 2021. In April, the companies also applied for generic marketing authorization together and fulfilled the ‘application for first latecomer drug approval’ requirement as well. By ‘winning the patent suit,’ the companies met the last requirement to receive first generic exclusivity. The companies would now only need to receive official approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Also, Daewoong Pharmaceuticals may also additionally secure first generic exclusivity. Daewoong Pharmaceuticals succeeded in invalidating or avoiding 3 of 4 Entresto’s patents. The company is currently challenging Novartis to invalidate the last remaining patent, and if Daewoong wins the last suit, the company will also be able to satisfy all of the first generic exclusivity requirements like the other 10 companies. The ruling on the trial is expected to be made within this month. ◆"Non-listed and newly-listed patents remain risk factors on the safe release of generics" The industry evaluates that Entresto’s patent dispute has virtually been settled with the generic companies’ win in the first trial. However, there is also an analysis that risks remain for the early release of the generic companies’ generics despite the complete victory they had made in the first round. The biggest risk factor is Novartis’s appeal. Novartis appealed against the first trial ruling and filed a suit for the annulment of the first trial decision, taking the case to the second trial. The company may likely file appeals for the other cases that it had not yet appealed to as well. If the first trial decision is reversed in the second trial, the early release of generics by generic companies will be reinterpreted as patent infringement. In this case, Novartis will file claims for damages on the patent infringement to the companies. In line with this, the generic companies need to overcome the patent infringement suit and the injunction application filed by Novartis to the Seoul Central District Court and others. Novartis filed a suit against the generic companies for infringing Entresto’s patent, and also filed an injunction requesting that the release of generics be banned until the results are made. The results of the injunction application are yet to be released. On the generic companies’ part, Novartis’s remaining non-listed and newly listed patents remain a burden. In the case of Entresto, 2 other patents remain in addition to the 4 patents that generic companies have now overcome. One of the 2 remaining patents is a salt·hydrate patent that was not listed in the patent register. This patent is set to expire in November 2026. Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, and Elyson Pharm have challenged the patent, and a ruling has not been made yet. The other patent is a newly listed use patent that was registered after the generic companies applied for marketing authorization. The new patent will expire in August 2033, and no company has yet challenged the patent. The generic companies can release their generics without avoiding or invalidating the two patents. The two remaining patents will not affect the companies’ acquisition of first generic exclusivity. However, there is the possibility that the court may make a patent infringement judgment apart from the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board’s ruling based on those two patents. From the generic companies’ point of view, the companies cannot rule out the concern over compensation for damages that may arise from this patent infringement. An industry official said, “Entresto is protected with several layers of patents, and generic companies have to bear the burden of overcoming all the patents; On the other hand, Novartis can prevent the early release of its generics even if it wins only one of all of its disputes.” Entresto’s ongoing patent dispute is the largest single product lawsuit in progress in the Korean pharmaceutical industry. 20 Korean companies have filed trials to confirm the passive scope of rights and patent invalidation trials on 4 patents. Novartis countered the suits by filing patent infringement and injunction applications to the Seoul Central District Court. The number of trials and litigations related to Entresto patents that have been filed with the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board, the Patent Court of Korea, and the Seoul Central District Court has reached 130.
- Company
- Revised guidelines for dyslipidemia in Korea
- by Eo, Yun-Ho Aug 08, 2022 06:09am
- In the management of dyslipidemia, it is believed that drug prescriptions will be more aggressive in Korea. In April, The Korean Society of Lipid and Atherosclerosis unveiled some of the contents of the fifth edition of the 2022 dyslipidemia treatment guidelines at the Spring Conference, and will officially announce it in September. What is noteworthy in the new guidelines is that patients with Chronic kidney disease stage 1-3 are considered to be at high risk, and a reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is recommended as a basic treatment goal. In 2017, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) established an extreme risk for cardiovascular disease and recommended that LDL cholesterol be adjusted to less than 55 mg/dL (future unit omitted). The 2019 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has emerged as an important issue, with LDL-C levels in extreme risk groups considering up to less than 40. On the other hand, in 2018, Korea stuck to the LDL-C treatment target of the ultra-high-risk group at 70. The guideline recognized the need to actively reduce LDL-C for high-risk patients in the trend that "The lower is the better," and the lower the LDL-C level, the higher the cardiovascular disease-related benefits. Drugs that are expected to increase their utilization are Ezetimibe and Atorvastatin. If 70 is viewed as an ideal number, it is correct that Ezetimibe has less needs in primary treatment. However, if LDL-C reduction is targeted in CKD patients, Ezetimibe combination therapy is more likely to be supported as statin alone therapy may not be achieved. The fact that Atorvastatin's mechanism of action is excreted as a liver rather than a kidney is also likely to act as an advantage. Atorvastatin, including Lipitor, is not affected by the plasma concentration or LDL-C reduction effect depending on whether it is a kidney disease, so you can freely select it without having to adjust the dose when administered to the patients.
- Policy
- MFDS beings rolling review of Pfizer’s multivalent vaccine
- by Lee, Hye-Kyung Aug 08, 2022 06:09am
- The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Minister: Yu-Kyoung Oh) announced that it had started a rolling review on the clinical trial data that Pfizer Korea submitted on the 5th for its COVID-19 vaccine ‘Comirnaty2 Inj. 0.1mg/mL.' Comirnaty2 Inj. 0.1mg/mL. is a multivalent mRNA vaccine that presents antigens for both the original COVID-19 virus (Wuhan strain) and its variant virus (Omicron strain, BA.1) that was developed as a booster vaccine to be received after primary vaccination. The MFDS plans to promptly and closely review the submitted clinical data. When the company applies for marketing authorization and additionally submits non-clinical data and quality data, the MFDS will promptly and closely review the data, and seek experts' advice on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine under review, including infectious disease specialists. The vaccine is also under rolling review in Europe and other countries. The MFDS said, “We will continue to make our best efforts to supply safe and effective vaccines to our people.”
- Policy
- 500 billion won in K-Bio and Vaccine Fund was created
- by Kim, Jung-Ju Aug 08, 2022 06:09am
- The government has finalized a plan to create a K-Bio and Vaccine Fund" worth a total of 500 billion won this year and has started selecting operators. In the future, the government plans to expand the scale to around 1 trillion won. The MOHW (first vice minister Cho Kyu-hong) announced on the 4th that it will report and confirm the plan to create a K-bio and vaccine fund at the emergency economic welfare meeting on July 27 and launch a public offering for the fund formation as a follow-up measure. To form the fund, the MOHW will announce the selection of operators to operate the fund through Korea Venture Investment from the 4th to 2 p.m. on the 26th, and hold a briefing session for fund managers online and offline on the 9th to guide them in detail. Looking at the purpose and plan of fund creation, the K-Bio and Vaccine Fund is designed to develop new global innovation drugs for domestic pharmaceutical companies, enhance competitiveness in the vaccine industry, and enter the global pharmaceutical and bio markets. The MOHW explained that the market size of domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies, new drug development pipelines and technology exports have been increasing significantly recently, and that there is a growing appeal that there is a lack of funds needed. The government predicted that the demand for funding will increase as domestic vaccine and therapeutic agent companies have investment plans such as production facilities worth about 13 trillion won by 2026. In fact, Samsung BioLogics is planned to have 8.74 trillion won, Lotte Biologics 1 trillion won, SK Bioscience 500 billion won, EuBiologics 101.5 billion won, and Amicogen 876 billion won. The K-Bio Vaccine Fund will be created with a total of 500 billion won, including 100 billion won in government investment, 100 billion won in government-run banks (Korea Development Bank, Export-Import Bank, and Industrial Bank) and 300 billion won in private investment. Among them, 50 billion won in government budgets and 50 billion won in existing fund profits, 45 billion won in KDB Development Bank, 30 billion won in Export-Import Bank of Korea and 25 billion won in IBK Industrial Bank of Korea will be invested. The fund's main investment targets are domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies (more than 60% of the total investment) and domestic vaccine companies (vaccine and vaccine raw materials and equipment-related companies, 15%), which can invest in late clinical trials that require large amounts of funds to create successful global innovative new drugs in Korea. Two funds worth 250 billion won will be created to quickly achieve the fund's target and investment will be initiated, and two operators will be selected. The selected operator operates the fund for eight years from the date of establishment of the fund, sets the base return (IRR) at 7%, and allows Fast-Closing to promote rapid investment execution after forming the fund. The K-Bio and Vaccine Fund management companies selected through the management company contest and the selection process in September will raise private investment funds to complete the formation of the fund within the year and conduct full-scale investment from the end of the year. Lee Ki-il, the second vice minister, said, "We plan to expand to 1 trillion won in the future starting with 500 billion won this year." He said, "I hope this fund will serve as an opportunity to revitalize the bio-health industry, and I hope to create cases of developing innovative new drugs in Korea and leap into a world-centered country in the pharmaceutical and bio sectors."
- Company
- Nabota's sales in US in 1Q of the year were 92 billion won
- by Aug 08, 2022 06:09am
- Daewoong Pharmaceutical's botulinum toxin drug Nabota broke a new quarterly sales record in North America. Sales also improved in the second quarter following the first quarter, surpassing 90 billion won in sales in the first half. Daewoong Pharmaceutical's partner Evolus announced on the 3rd (local time) that its sales of Jubo (Nabota) reached $37.16 million in the second quarter. This is an increase of 46.3% compared to the same period last year. This quarter's sales are the highest since Navota's launch in North America in the second quarter of 2019. It surpassed 34.66 million dollars in the fourth quarter of last year, breaking a new quarterly sales record. Nabota's sales in North America in the first half of the year increased 87% year-on-year to $70.39 million. Since its launch, its cumulative sales have reached $260.2 million. Evolus is a global copyrighted partner of botulinum toxin Nabota developed by Daewoong Pharmaceutical. Since approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February 2019, Nabota has been actively sold in North America. In particular, it resolved the negative factors by ending the International Trade Commission (ITC) dispute with Allergan and Medy Tox early last year. It has become possible to actively market Jubo without legal concerns. Navota's quarterly sales, which stood at $20 million last year, exceeded $30 million for the first time in the fourth quarter of last year. Nabota added 590 new accounts in the second quarter, securing more than 8,100 customers so far. The percentage of re-orders remains above 70%. In the first half of this year, about 180,000 Evolus Reward loyalty programs were used. Evolus is conducting more aggressive marketing. Following the creation of more than 250 million media exposures in the second quarter, it also launched the largest promotional campaign under the name of "Switch Your Tox and Love Evolus Forever" last month.
- Policy
- Supply of Children's Tylenol suspension will be normalized
- by Lee, Tak-Sun Aug 07, 2022 11:30pm
- The product license was withdrawn due to the suspension of the operation of the Jansen Hyangnam plant in Korea, but the new product re-licensed due to technology transfer will be listed as starting in August. This includes child Tylenol suspension, and attention is being paid to whether supply and demand will be normalized with new benefits, given that the product has recently been struggling to supply. According to the industry, Ultracet ER, Ultracet Semi, Ultracet Semi ER, and Children's Tylenol suspension will be newly reimbursed as of August 1. The upper limit is the same as before. Following the withdrawal of the Hyangnam plant, the permission for these products was withdrawn in the first half of last year, and the salary was scheduled to be deleted. In response, Janssen was re-approved as a new product by transferring technology to Handok in the case of three types, including Ultracet ER. Children's Tylenol suspension was also newly licensed as an imported item. Three types, including Ultracet ER, were scheduled to be removed in November and Children's Tylenol suspension in September. However, as new products are listed, prescription gaps are not expected to occur at all. Ultracet ER is a product developed directly by Janssen Korea in 2010, not by global Janssen. Since there were no imported items, Janssen Korea decided to transfer its technology to Handok, and has been taking steps. In March, a new product produced by Handok was approved, and this time, it was even paid. Children's Tylenol suspension was approved in early February as an imported item manufactured in Indonesia. However, due to difficulties in supply, products distributed in Australia were urgently introduced in May during the COVID-19 epidemic. Johnson & Johnson Korea, which distributes and sells Children's Tylenol suspension, announced that supply will be normalized in August. Attention is focusing on whether the supply will begin in earnest with this new product.
- Product
- H. pylori with 50% prevalence requires active examination/tx
- by jung, sae-im Aug 07, 2022 11:29pm
- Helicobacter pylori is a bacteria that causes digestive diseases such as acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, gastric lymphoma, and gastric cancer, and is defined by the World Health Organization as a first-class carcinogen. As half of the nation's population is evaluated as Helicobacter infections, the importance of eradication treatment is increasing in recent clinical sites. On the 5th, Park Sun-jae, director of the Myongji Hospital in Busan, stressed the need for treatment, saying that the prevalence in Korea has decreased to around 50% due to the introduction of Helicobacter eradication treatment, but still maintains a high prevalence. Helicobacter pylori is a spiral bacterium that can be activated even in the stomach, which is a strong acid environment. It is known to induce chronic gastritis and intestinal epithelium, increasing the risk of gastric cancer by about 10 times. Park Sun-jae, director of Myongji Hospital in Busan In Korea, as benefits for all Helicobacter pylori treatments have been recognized since 2018, eradication treatments have also continued to expand their influence. Specifically, health insurance benefits are applied to MALT lymphoma, peptic ulcers, early gastric cancer surgery (endoscopic resection), and idiopathic thrombocytopenia. Iron deficiency anemia, functional dyspepsia, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, gastric cancer family history, and other cases where eradication is evaluated as necessary due to medical judgment are being used in clinical sites as non-reimbursement. Director Park said, "The criteria for primary treatment therapy have been expanded to the 2020 guidelines of the Society," adding, "However, patients who can be strongly recommended will be divided depending on whether they are diseases that meet the health insurance benefit standards." "If intestinal metaplasia or atrophic gastritis is clearly confirmed through endoscopy or if there is a family history of gastric cancer, it is recommended to patients regardless of whether health insurance benefits are applied or not." Currently, primary therapy is classified into four types according to the recommendation criteria of the 2020 Korean Upper Gastrointestinal and Helicobacter Society. Conventional triple therapy (Amoxicillin + Clathromycin + PPI), quadruple therapy without Bismuth (Amoxicillin + Clathromycin + PPI + Metronidazole), triple therapy selection after Clathromycin resistance testing, and etc. are recommended in some patients. Director Park said, "As a first-line treatment, conventional triple therapy has changed OTC period from 7 days to 14 days. In the case of the 7th, the success rate of treatment may decrease, he said. "In fact, there are cases where 14 days fail due to the high resistance rate in Korea such as Clarithromycin." This varies depending on the region or the age group that uses a lot of antibiotics, she said. She said, "Quadruple therapy is an additional Metronidazole-based drug, but depending on the patient, it is not a drug that the patient suffers when prescribed compared to the three-drug therapy on the 14th." She evaluated, "As a secondary treatment, it is not burdensome to feel in actual clinical trials rather than quadruple-drug therapy including Bismuth." Recently, P-CAB along with PPI has become possible for eradication treatment, but in terms of safety, existing treatments with accumulated clinical data are preferred, she explained. Director Park said, "It varies from doctor to doctor. If a specific item has a poor eradication rate, we do not change the treatment." Regarding PPI and P-CAB prescriptions, there is also a problem with drug prices, she said. "As the number of prescriptions on the 14th increases as the primary treatment therapy, the difference in drug prices is greater." Although antibiotics are similar, the difference in drug prices of these ingredients can be a burden on patients.
- Company
- 3rd PD-1i Jemperli to soon receive approval in Korea
- by Eo, Yun-Ho Aug 05, 2022 06:06am
- A third PD-1 inhibitor is knocking to enter the Korean market. According to industry sources, GSK Korea’s PD-1 inhibitor cancer immunotherapy ‘Jemperli (dostarlimab),’ which the company applied for approval earlier this year, may be approved within the year. If approved, Jemperli will become the third PD-1 inhibitor introduced to the Korean market following Ono·BMS’s ‘Opdivo (nivolumab),’ and MSD’s ‘Keytruda (pembrolizumab).’ Unlike the other two drugs that were first indicated as melanoma treatments, Jemperli was first approved in the US in April last year as a treatment for mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer that has progressed on or following prior treatment with a platinum-containing regimen.’ In August of the same year, Jemperli was additionally approved for the treatment of adults with dMMR recurrent or advanced solid tumors who have progressed on or following previous treatment and have no satisfactory therapeutic options. GSK plans to add other indications to endometrial cancer in Korea as well. The efficacy of Jemperli was confirmed through the multicohort GARNET trial that included a cohort of patients with dMMR/MSI-H endometrial cancer who progressed on or following prior treatment with a platinum-containing regimen. Trial results showed an objective response rate (ORR) of 43.5% and the disease control rate of 55.6% in the Jemperli-treated group. The median duration of response was not reached yet, and the rate of patients whose duration lasted 6 months and 12 months were 97.9% and 90.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, the other companies are also actively working to expand their indication and reimbursement for Keytruda and Opdivo in Korea as well. MSD succeeded in expanding the reimbursement standards for Keytruda to first-line NSCLC in 1H this year, and Opdivo's indication as a first-line treatment in gastric cancer has passed the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service’s Cancer Disease Deliberation Committee.
- Policy
- Security elaboration/ ultra-high-priced new drug coverage
- by Kim, Jung-Ju Aug 05, 2022 06:04am
- In order to strengthen accessibility to new drug patients, the government has steadily increased coverage by opening a benefit gateway. However, due to the development of innovative new drugs, limited funding of health insurance is a problem to catch up with the ultra-high price trend of anticancer drugs and rare disease treatments. The challenge of overcoming the sustainability issue remains a challenge. As Zolgensma, a treatment for Spinal Muscle Atrophy (SMA), called "ultra-high-priced one-shot treatment," was listed on the benefit starting this month, the government considered ways to improve accessibility from the basic definition of expensive new drugs. The procedure for registering new drug benefits in Korea is carried out sequentially by applying for benefits from pharmaceutical companies, deliberating and evaluating the HIRA, negotiating drug prices between the NHIS and companies, and deliberating and voting by the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee. However, it has been pointed out that the accessibility of drugs requiring urgent benefits is disrupted as HIRA deliberation and evaluation usually takes 120 days, 150 days for RSA targets, 60 days for drug price negotiations, and 30 days for review by the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee. The biggest problem is by far the price. The problem of price has been a constant obstacle even in the 2010s, when social needs were not heavily reflected. Since the government and the insurance authorities judged whether or not the salary was paid and the price was the top priority, there were many problems with the appearance of high-priced new drugs. Starting with the introduction of RSA in 2014, the government introduced a permit-evaluation linkage system in the same year and introduced a new economic evaluation data submission system and a drug price negotiation system in 2015 to improve accessibility to high-priced new drugs. With the listing of Zolgensma, the government announced plans to create a definition of expensive drugs that it has been preparing and expand the mechanism for shortening negotiations, while strengthening follow-up management and monitoring. The government will actively adopt a patient-level performance-based model by improving RSA, which used to be a financial base, but strengthen follow-up monitoring to utilize a payment method suitable for treatment effects and improve PVA in operation. In addition, it was decided to prepare a pre-approved standard operating procedure (SOP) before taking ultra-high-priced drugs. In addition, the National Assembly's legislative investigation office says it is desirable to discuss the introduction of a "pre-entry and post-evaluation" method as a new benefit pharmaceutical companies by paying the cost or evaluating the effectiveness of treatment after administration when claiming treatment expenses exceeding the set total benefit. This is the way that related academia and patient organizations have suggested so far, and it can be said that it belongs to the same context in the large framework as RSA's performance-based model. In order to make it common, the authorities and insurers should consider weakening the insurer's bargaining power and devices for effective operation in the process of negotiating drug prices. In addition, the National Assembly also suggested the need to set up a separate fund to solve financial problems that will be affected by strengthening the guarantee of expensive new drugs. This can be referenced in that advanced insurance countries such as the United Kingdom operate various types of drug funding systems as a mechanism for salary exceptions in consideration of uncertainties that arise when there is not enough data to evaluate the value of drugs. The government plans to subdivide the management method and registration process by lowering the speed and evaluation barrier of the benefit entry stage, increasing follow-up monitoring and evaluation, and improving the reference criteria for foreign drug price adjustment in the future. It is important to pay attention to how much more sophisticated the new drug guarantee policy will become in the future, so it is also important to pay attention to the parliamentary audit in the second half.
- Policy
- MOHW reluctant to CVS's request to expand SRADs
- by kang, hae-kyung Aug 05, 2022 06:04am
- The Ministry of Health and Welfare expressed disapproval over the convenience store industry's request that the scope of Safe and Readily Available Drugs (SRADs) should be expanded to antacids and burn ointments for sale at convenience stores. The MOHW explained that the SRAD system is a unique exception made from the healthcare system’s perspective, and that the policy environment is now changing so that drugs may be purchased from pharmacists at public late-night pharmacies or pharmacy vending machines. At the 'Policy Improvement Seminar for the Sustainable Development of Close-to-Life Retail Industry' that was organized by the Korea Franchisee Union and hosted by Seung-Jae Choi's Office of the People Power Party, Tae-Gil Ha, Director of Pharmaceutical Policy at MOHW, reiterated that the SRAD system is a special exception made from the perspective of Korea’s healthcare system. Director Ha said, “Pharmaceuticals are biologically active, and contrary to the claim that ‘no side effects have been reported from the use of SRADs sold at convenience stores, around 200-400 adverse events are being reported annually through the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Korea Institute of Drug Safety & Risk Management. Although in principle, pharmacists need to dispense pharmaceuticals, the SRAD system was allowed as an exception for the convenience of the patients for their use at times that pharmacists cannot cover. We are not aware how much SRADs' sales contribute to sales at convenience stores, but we have to put consumer convenience and health first." Director Ha added, “Although there is a claim that the operation of late-night pharmacies is poor, policy changes such as the expansion of public late-night pharmacies and pharmacy vending machines are currently being made. Still, there is much conflict over SRADs in reaching a social consensus.” In other words, in addition to the occupational conflicts that arise among pharmacists, experts have concluded that it is difficult to designate antacid and antidiarrheal drugs as SRADs. Director Ha also noted that contrary to the claims of the convenience store industry, problems such as rule violations on the sellers’ part are also being raised. He said, "Some media outlets have covered how seller compliance violations are made in almost 85% of the cases, and that there is demand for legislation to strengthen seller education and reinforce enforcement of regulations. The lack of a systemic system for dispensing SRADs at convenience stores also acts as a burden.” When a policy signal is issued, pharmacists’ associations deliver the news to local pharmacist societies, but no clear systematic delivery route for such news exists for SRADs in convenience stores. Director Ha said, “Patient convenience is of course most important, but please do understand that national statistics on such a demand are not clear and we have to prioritize patient convenience while ensuring the safety of the healthcare system."
