- LOGIN
- MemberShip
- 2026-05-21 01:11:52
- Company
- Kolon Life Science faces 88.5-billion-won damage lawsuits
- by Kim, Jin-Gu Nov 18, 2019 10:21pm
- Kolon Life Science is facing a series of damage lawsuits asking for 88.5 billion won as compensation for the Invossa incident. Kolon Life Science stated in the third quarter report that the company’s properties have been seized by Mitsubishi Tanabe and outstanding contract payment from Mundipharma has been suspended. It is facing number of damage lawsuits filed by individuals and insurance companies since last May. 1,572 individuals and companies from home and abroad demanding 88.5 billion won As of last Oct. 31, 1,572 individuals have filed litigation cases against Kolon Life Science. Most of them are shareholders of Kolon Life Science and Kolon TissueGene. Some of patients who had been taking Invossa are claiming the damage as well. Other 19 corporations, including Kyobo Life Insurance Company, KB Insurance, and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance, have also decided to sue Kolon Life Science. Their total litigation value adds up to 58.4 billion won. Meanwhile, Japan-based Mitsubishi Tanabe has submitted a request for arbitration to International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The Japanese company demands the Korean company to return the upfront payment of JPY 2.5 billion (about 26.9 billion won) and to pay about 300 million yen (3.2 billion won) for damage. Regarding the issue, Kolon Life Science explained “The company received 2.5 billion yen as an upfront payment, without a return condition, when Mitsubishi Tanabe and Kolon Life Science signed the technology transfer deal in 2016. But in December 2017, Mitsubishi Tanabe requested for contract cancellation and return of contract payment, and in last May, the company submitted a request for arbitration to ICC against Kolon Life Science as it added another grounds for the contract revocation”. As a result, Kolon Life Science faces litigation value of about 88.5 billion won from companies in and out of Korea. List of damage lawsuits filed against Kolon Life Science 14.4 billion won-worth property frozen, 15 billion won contract payment suspended The third quarter report also disclosed the fact Kolon Life Science’ property worth 14.4 billion has been put under provisional attachment by Mitsubishi Tanabe. Kolon Life Science headquarter building seized by Mitsubishi Tanabe Mitsubishi Tanabe requested Korean courts to attach three of Kolon Life Science’ real estate properties under provisional attachment, and Daegu, Cheongju, and Seoul Southern District Courts ruled seizure of Kolon Life Science’ assets. Accordingly, land and building of Second Gimcheon Plant (valued at around 3.3 billion won), land and building of Chungju Plant (valued at around 7.8 billion won), and Magok headquarters building (valued at around 3.3 billion won) have been seized. Also the outstanding contract payment from Mundipharma has been put on hold. Kolon Life Science may have to return the already received 15 billion won. Previously, Kolon Life Science and Mundipharma signed a license deal worth of 30 billion won in November, 2018. Mundipharma agreed to pay the Korean company 15 billion won each in the third and fourth quarter of this year. The company has received 15 billion won from the global company in the past third quarter as stated on the agreement. But in last May, Kolon Life Science agreed on signing Mundipharma as pledge of movables for collateral security, which in result suspended the outstanding fourth-quarter payment of 15 billion won. And when the pledgee’s condition is activated, Kolon Life Science may have to return the received 15 billion won.
- Policy
- 5 or more medications were taken by 68% for older people
- by Kim, Jung-Ju Nov 18, 2019 05:34pm
- Korean proportion of 75 years and over who are taking more than 5 medications concurrently exceeded 68%. It is far exceeding the average of 48% of OECD –member countries. Diabetic prescription rate of first choice antihypertensive medication patientsis 78%, which is lower than the average of 83% in OECD-member countries, but is steadily increasing. In particular, more than eight out of 10 patients said they had enough consulation hours. MOHW(Ministry of Health and Welfare) announced on Nov 17th analyzing the level and status of Korea and each country based on the 2017 results of health care presented by the OECD. In Korea, ▲ the quality of acute care and outpatient care is continuously improving. ▲ In particular, the level of colorectal cancer and gastric cancer is the highest level among OECD countries. ▲ The level of outpatient prescription is gradually improved, but management by the multi combination prescriptions is required. The multi combination prescriptions means administration of five or more drugs with different ingredients for more than 90 days. Acute myocardial infarction and stroke 30 days mortality after admission to hospital ◆Acute care= Acute myocardial infarction and stroke 30 days mortality rate are representative indicators of the quality of the acute care area. within 30 days of acute stage patients over 45 years of age. The 30-day mortality rate for patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke (over 45 years) in 2017 was 3.2%, the superior level among OECD countries. The OECD average is 7.7%. The 30-day mortality rate for acute myocardial infarction has declined since 2008, but has increased since 2016, with 9.6% in 2017, higher than the OECD average. The OECD average is 6.9%. Cancer five year net survival ◆Chronic disease = Among the chronic diseases that are managed well in primary care areas, hospitalization rates for asthma and diabetes were 81 patients per 100,000 people and 245.2 patients per 100,000 people, respectively, higher than the OECD average. The OECD average is 41.9 patients per 100,000 people for asthma and 129 patients for diabetes. Chronic disease admission rates have only declined since 2008, and COPD disease admission rates are approaching the OECD average ◆Cancer care = The five-year net survival rate in Korea is the highest level of cancer care, with colorectal cancer of 71.8%, rectal cancer of 71.1% and gastric cancer of 68.9% Five-year net survival means the cumulative probability that a cancer patient will survive five years after diagnosis if cancer is the only cause of death. The 5-year net survival rate of lung cancer patients (25.1%) was higher than that of OECD countries (17.2%), and acute lymphocytic leukemia was 84.4%, slightly higher than the OECD average (83.7%). ◆ Outpatient prescription = Outpatient prescription level is determined by ▲ multidrug prescription ▲ opioid prescription ▲ antipsychotic prescription ▲ antibiotic prescription rate ▲ diabetes patient prescription ▲ benzodiazepines prescription. Data on multidrug, opioid and antipsychotic prescriptions were first collected this year. First, a multi-drug Prescription is defined as the proportion of patients 75 years of age or older who are chronically taking five or more drugs. In 2017, Korea accounted for 68.1%, the highest among the seven countries that submitted statistics (average: 48.3%). The total prescription for opioids, a narcotic analgesic, was 0.9DDD / 1000 people per day, the lowest next to Turkey. In Korea, narcotics prescriptions are low due to strict narcotics regulation and control , and repulsion from the term of “narcotics”. Defined Daily Dose (DDD) is the average dose that must be taken throughout the day for the main ingredients of the drug to take effect. The prescription rate for antipsychotics for patients 65 years of age and older is 36.2 per 1000 prescription populations, which is among the lowest in the 16 countries where statistics were submitted. Hospital admission rate In 2017, the amount of antibiotics for outpatient’s prescriptions in Korea was 26.5DDD / 1000 persons / day Medication prescription adequacy in diabetics is measured by first-choice antihypertensive * and hypolipidemic ** prescription rates. Primary antihypertensive agents are drugs used in the initial treatment of hypertension and include diuretics, beta blockers and alpha beta blockers, calcium antagonists, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors), and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). Lipid lowering agents are drugs that control blood lipids, such as cholesterol. For diabetics, higher prescription rates produce better results. Prescription rate to reduce the risk of diabetic nephropathy and to slow the progression of hyperalbuminemia in patients with diabetes with high blood pressure is 78%, which is lower than the OECD average (82.9%), but is increasing. In order to prevent cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients, the medical guidelines * recommend prescribing lipid-lowering drugs.In Korea, the level of drug prescription ** in diabetics increased by 23.3% p from 44.1% in 2011 to 67.4% in 2017. Hypnotic benzodiazepines are drugs that require caution due to the increased risk of side effects such as cognitive impairment and falls when taken over 65 years. The long-term prescribing of benzodiazepines was 10.1 patients per 1000 population over the age of 65, lower than the OECD average (33.9). Among the benzodiazepines, long-acting drugs were prescribed for 146.3 patients per 1000 people over the age of 65, more than the OECD average of 52 (52), but significantly lower than in 2011 (241.5). Long-term action of benzodiazepine drugs is expected to have a longer half-life when taken by the elderly, resulting in negative effects due to excessive sedation. Prescribing in primary care related patient safety Prescription and mental health related to patient safety = 80.8% of patients reported that their doctors had enough time to check out their consultation based on the 2018 medical service experience survey. In addition, 82.9% and 82.4% of the respondents explained that the doctor explained it in an easy-to-understand manner and participated in the decision-making process. The excess mortality rate for schizophrenia was 4.42 and 4.21 for bipolar affective disorder, higher than the OECD average (4, 2.9, respectively).
- Company
- AI-driven Drug Discovery is already signigicantly high level
- by Kim, Jin-Gu Nov 18, 2019 04:47pm
- Global pharmaceutical companies are showing great interest in the development of new drugs using artificial intelligence (AI). It is expected that AI will drastically reduce the time and costs associated with finding a candidate substance through clinical trials and approvals before entering the market. What about the perspective of the computer science industry, not the pharmaceutical industry? Prof. Kang, Jaewoo, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University, explained that AI-driven Drug Discovery is already coming to reality at 'BIOplus 2019' held at COEX in Seoul on Nov 12. Prof. Kang presented as a speaker at a session called ''AI Medicine: Data-driven Drug Discovery. He expects AI to be particularly strong in clinical trials including Drugs Pipeline discovery & verification. In addition, he introduced cases of this and added his experience of winning the global competition continuesly, According to him, the most prominent step in AI development is Drugs Pipeline discovery. At present, the discovery of candidate materials is mainly done by manual method through document retrieval like Pub Med, the world's largest medical thesis site, reads related articles and formulates hypotheses. However, the number of new articles published in Pub Med is 5000 conservatives a day. It is impossible for a person to check one by one. AI can contribute to this, Professor Kang explained. He focused on AI's "human language learning ability." He succeeded in creating a program called 'BioBERT' last January based on Google's 'deep learning' technology. AI will answer it. if you enter the medical question you want in the program. It is an expansion of the pharmaceutical bio sector of 'BERT' which Google disclosed earlier. Google learned Wikipedia's language with deep learning and created a program called BERT. Data was entered as Wikipedia's language. Instead of Wikipedia, BioBERT learned the language of Pub Med and PMC (another medical article search site). 16 billion words were entered as data. BioBERT's capabilities have been recognized globally. He won first place in BioASQ, one of the AI bio competitions in the pharmaceutical bio sector. Google was in second place. It came with Google's model and reborn as a better program than Google. He said,“It was a test to see how accurate the program would answer, and we can significantly reduce time and effort to find candidates (via BioBERT)." Next step is to verify it once you formulate a hypothesis. Prof. Kang also explained that AI contributes a lot. He added real experience. It was a competition called 'IDG-DREEM' this year. When professors at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York presented their hypothesis as a problem, AI experts around the world searched for answers. Professor Kang won the championship for two consecutive years. He became a co-winner this year. It is in the same position as Illinois State University, China National University of China, and North Carolina State University. The problem was that 'find ZINC15 (Pharmaceutical Bio-Sector Compound DB)' to determine what is most effective when combined with certain drugs in thyroid cancer. In the case of drugs with different structures and similar mechanisms, Prof. Kang's group trained machine learning models to recognize as similar drugs. As a result, It was successful to find 10 substances. Seven of these substances were also confirmed to have related papers. AI could also help with clinical trials, Pro. Kang predicted. "We can predict which patients will be particularly effective for which patients or for which biomarkers," he said. In 2016, AstraZeneca held a contest with Sanger. After revealing the patient's genetic information and the effects of the drug, the problem was predicting which cancer would be most effective. Prof. Kang said that more data is required than the previous stage of finding and verifying candidates. Even though it was the latest professional computer at that time, it took over 20 hours to solve a problem on its own. Eventually, 20 more computers were purchased and the processing speed was increased by 20 times and then reduced to 1 hour. Prof. Kang's group, who first entered the competition, placed second . The following year, he was ranked No. 1 in a competition hosted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2017. "In 2016 and 2017, we were able to succeed because we used the good quality of patient information that was organized in advance by the organizer." "It is very important to reine data for AI and Even in the field, quality & quantity of information is very important.“ "AI also learns from data… the more the better" In the subsequent presentation, the importance of the data was emphasized. Ph.D Shin, Hyun-jin, who is in charge of AI drug development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, said, "I feel like I'm floating in the ocean. It's water everywhere but there's no water to drink." There is a lot of data, but no useful data available. "In order for machine learning to evolve, standardized data must be available. However, different data formats are difficult to use these days.“ “Dissemination is the most important to win the war in the long run”he said. "It is same as AI drug development. Both the quantity and quality of the data is important. lower quality may result in lower accuracy, while lower quantities may result in biased results“ He emphasized.
- Policy
- VMS treating fezolinetant Phase 3 approved in Korea
- by Lee, Tak-Sun Nov 18, 2019 06:23am
- An investigational medicine treating vasomotor symptoms (VMS) associated with menopause is to conduct a Phase 3 clinical trial in Korea. On Nov. 15, Ministry of Food and Drug Safe approved of Investigational New Drug (IND) application of fezolinetant for transnational Phase 3 clinical trial taking place in Korea. Acquired by a Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas in 2017, a Belgium-based pharmaceutical company Ogeda SA has been developing the fezolinetant pipeline. The approved trial is to investigate efficacy and safety of fezolinetant on Asian women struggling with moderate-to-severe menopause-related VMS like hot flashes. Fezolinetant, an oral selective neurokinin-3 (NK3) receptor antagonist, is an emerging non-hormonal option for managing VMS. Reportedly, more than a half of women around the world in menopause experience VMS. The most prevalent symptoms are hot flush, heart palpitation, night sweating, anxiety and depression. To this day, estrogen-like hormone therapy was recommended the most. But hormone therapy should be taken with a caution as it could cause risk of breast cancer and other adverse reaction. The Phase 2 trial of fezolinetant reported significant reduction of the VMS frequency, specifically for hot flush, compared to a placebo group. The trial did not have any apparent adverse reaction reported. Having a high expectation on the innovativeness of fezolinetant, Astellas acquired Ogeda SA with a paycheck of EUR 800 million (about 1.29 trillion won). As soon as the non-hormonal VMS compound completes its late stage clinical trial in Korea successfully, it would initiate regulator’s approval procedure.
- Company
- Pfizer’s Upjohn changed in business name to Viatris
- by Eo, Yun-Ho Nov 18, 2019 06:23am
- Pfizer's Upjohn is expected to be reborn as a complete independent corporation, or one pharmaceutical company, next year. According to the relevant industry, Pfizer and Mylan decided to change the name of the company to Viatris in 2020 after the merger of the patent expiry division. This means complete company separation. Currently, Pfizer’s Upjohn is still operating under Pfizer's name under Pfizer Pharmaceutical. In fact, Pfizer Korea general manager, Oh Dong-wook is also in charge of the two subsidiaries. As Mylan has not entered the Korean market yet, the Pfizer’s Upjohn’s business division will be operated under Pfizer's control for the time being, but in the end, independence will be achieved if all the matters are prepared with the name’s change in the next year. In particular, due to the nature of the domestic market, the sales volume of expired patented drugs is not small, and Pfizer's Upjone has big items such as Lipitor (Atorvastatin calcium), Norvasc (Amlodipine besylate), and Celebrex (Cerecoxib). So, Pharmaceutical company of a certain scale is expected to be established. Compared to global corporations, the number of employees in Korean subsidiaries is also overwhelming. CEO Dong-wook Oh reorganized the company's internal corporate structure into Pfizer Korea Pharmaceutical which specializes in innovative drugs based on the development of new drugs, and Pfizer Korea Upjohn with concentrating on off-patent brands and generic drugs. He said, "We look forward to growth potential to be better realized in each area“ He said, "We will focus on improving the quality of life by providing timely treatments to more patients based on the various drug pipelines and medicines in each business division. It is the stage to discuss which direction to take, and also, Employees' roles and responsibilities remain unchanged in this process. ”
- Company
- Combination therapy dominates in DPP-4 inhibitor market
- by Chon, Seung-Hyun Nov 17, 2019 05:35pm
- While dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor products are currently leading the Korean oral diabetic treatment market, combination drugs reaffirmed its dominance over the DPP-4 market taking up two-thirds of the pie. Even compared with monotherapy prescription volume, MSD’s combination drug with DDP-4 inhibitor and metformin, Janumet outdid other products. On the other hand, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Trajenta topped the monotherapy market. According to the pharmaceutical research frim, UBIST on Nov. 13, outpatient prescription sales of DPP inhibitor class diabetes treatment grew by 7.2 percent than the same time year before, reaching the total of 398.6 billion won. The figure includes both monotherapy and combination therapy. DPP-4 inhibitor medicine outpatient prescription sales trend (unit: KRW 1 million) Source: UBISTSince the launch of MSD’s Januvia in 2008, total of nine DPP-4 inhibiting products have been released. The products aim to treat diabetes by blocking the action of DPP-4 enzyme breaking down secreted insulin. The type of medicine has the biggest pie in the oral diabetes treatment market in Korea. Apparently, the medicine adequately controls the blood glucose level, while it lowers the risk of adverse events like hypoglycemia and increased body weight than any other medicine. Also, there are other DDP-4 inhibitor-based combination therapies available with metformin and pioglitazone. The Korean market has been heated up as six out of nine DPP-4 inhibitor products launched in the market are co-promoted by two companies. ◆Januvia and Janumet top market share, Tenelia and Suganon leap forward Individual sales-wise, Januvia and Janumet kept their top prescription sales in the third quarter with accumulated sales of 117.4 billion won. The figure was increased by 3.0 percent than the previous year. MSD and Chong Kun Dang are co-promoting Januvia products in the Korean market. Trajenta and Trajenta Duo, co-promoted by Boehringer Ingelheim and Yuhan Corporation, had a 5.1 percent growth than the previous year reaching accumulated prescription sales of 87.4 billion won in the third quarter. The total sales figure may be lower than Januvia, but it had a greater growth. LG Chem’s Zemiglo and Zemimet accumulated prescription sales of 71.3 billion won until the third quarter, soaring 13.0 percent than last year. After launching Zemiglo in 2012, LG Chem partnered with Sanofi to co-promote the product but it resigned the partnership deal with Daewoon Pharmaceutical instead in 2016. Daewoong Pharmaceutical has been cumulating expertise in diabetes treatment sales for eight years since 2008 with the first DPP-4 inhibitor drug, Januvia. Combined sales experience and knowledge, Daewoong Pharmaceutical has been evaluated to have led the prominent sales power of Zemiglo in recent days. Tenelia and Suganon jumped into the game late but their performances so far have been notable. Along with Tenelia M, Handok’s Tenelia generated accumulated outpatient prescription sales of 25.9 billion won by the end of September. The figure has surged by 18.9 percent than the same time last year. Dong-A ST’s Suganon and Sugamet generated 62.0 percent growth from the year before, recording 10.9 billion won this September. However, Galvus and Galvus Met were a few that showed a decrease in prescription than last year among DPP-4 inhibitor medicines. ◆Janumet undoubtedly tops combination therapy market, Trajenta leads monotherapy Comparing DPP-4 inhibitor monotherapy and combination therapy, the combination therapy products had a steeper growth. Accumulated prescription sales of DPP-4 inhibitor monotherapy were 144 billion won in the third quarter, recording 5.1 percent growth from the year before. But, DPP-4 inhibitor in combination with metformin and pioglitazone generated prescription sales of 254.6 billion won, surging about 8.4 percent from last year. Making a steeper growth than monotherapy, combination therapy took over 63.9 percent of the whole market share. Within the DPP-4 inhibitor combination therapy market, Janumet, a combination of sitagliptin (Januvia) and metformin, dominated the market share. Janumet and Janumet XR swallowed up 33.0 percent of the whole combination therapy market with accumulated prescription sales of 84.9 billion won in the third quarter. Another combination therapy, Zemimet followed right behind with 46.4 billion won prescription sales, beating Trajenta Duo. Meanwhile, monotherapy market showed a contrasting trend. Accumulated prescription sales of Trajenta reached 43.9 billion won and topped the market share, when Januvia’s figure only reached 32.6 billion won. Trajenta was ranked on the third place in the combination therapy market, but the medicine still remains strong in the monotherapy market. Galvus was the fourth most selling medicine in the combination therapy market, but its rank in monotherapy market dropped to sixth after Tenelia and Nesina.
- Company
- Prosecution combs vaccine companies for alleged collusion
- by Kim, Jin-Gu Nov 16, 2019 06:29am
- The prosecution set out to investigate on a suspicion of pharmaceutical companies colluding together when supplying vaccine to government. According to pharmaceutical industry on Nov. 14, the prosecution combed ten alleged pharmaceutical companies and distributors on Nov. 13. Companies like GC Pharma, Kwangdong Pharmaceutical, Boryung Pharmaceutical and Korea Vaccine, and distributors like Wooin Meditech, and Pharm World were reportedly on the search and seizure list. Allegedly, the companies have fixed bidding prices of vaccine products submitted to Public Procurement Service when supplying the products to national healthcare institutes. The suspicion not only accuses them for price fixing, but also for supplying products without reporting vaccine’s adverse reaction. In fact, the authority apparently found documents related to vaccine bidding and supply as prosecutors and investigators were searching their offices in the afternoon of Nov. 13. Meanwhile, seven pharmaceutical companies, including Boryung Biopharma, SK Chemical and GC Pharma and CJ have been caught by Fair Trade Commission for colluding vaccine prices in 2005 to 2009. As a result, the companies were fined by the court’s decision.
- Company
- Novatis Korea, 5 Copyright arrangements including Exelon
- by An, Kyung-Jin Nov 16, 2019 06:28am
- Exelon Capsules Novartis Korea is working copyright control of some central nervous system (CNS) medicines such as Excelon. According to the industry on 14th Novartis Korea is considering selling the copyrights of some of the CNS products sold by the Rx medicine business division. The intention is to clean up less profitable items and focus sales marketing activities on the company's flagship products. The abolition of division in charge of CNS products such as dementia, epilepsy and Parkinson's disease drugs has already been phased out, leaving only official announcements. Novartis' original copyrighted products are sold to domestic pharmaceutical companies, and it is likely to return the original copyrighted products from other industry to the original developer. Novartis will continue to supply products while maintaining product licensing rights, but the overall sales activities, including product promotions and sales manpower, will be handed over to domestic pharmaceutical companies. The contract partner is not yet confirmed. The products sold by the CNS department are five drugs, including anti-intermittent drugs named 'Trileptal' and 'Tegretol', Parkinson's drugs named 'Stalevo' and 'Comtan' and Alzheimer's dementia drugs named 'Exelon'. Parkinson's drugs named Stalevo and Comtan, are two products that Novartis does not own the original copyright and are likely to return to the original developer without re-signing. Drugs under the copyright sale has been a record a sharp decrease in sales after the rebate suspension According to UBIST Data Bank, outpatient prescriptions sales for ‘Excelon’ in 2018 were ₩1.8 billion, 86.7% less than in 2016, before the suspension of reimbursement was imposed. The total sales of five products in the CNS department, including Exelon, dropped 57.3% from ₩51.5 billion in 2013 to ₩21.6 billion in 2018. In this regard, Novartis Korea was found to provide medical workers with illegal rebates and was suspended from the MOHW for six months (Aug 24 2017 ~ Feb 23 2018) for nine items in 2017. At the time, the sales loss was big due to the inclusion of four different doses of Execlon capsules and three different doses of Execlon patches. The company’s stance is that it is just to optimize the CNS portfolio, not related to the rebate case. A Novartis official said, “In the process of optimizing our product portfolio strategy, we are reducing the activity of some older products and increasing the concentration of new drugs. Reducing the domestic sales marketing of some items does not mean we withdraw our business division. "
- Policy
- Doctors consider 'efficacy' over cost on anticancer Rx
- by Lee, Hye-Kyung Nov 15, 2019 06:29am
- Domestic oncologists have considered more efficacy and safety than the medicne expense when they prescribe anticancer drugs It implies that health authorities need to mix the ratio of anticancer efficacy and toxicity when applying the valuation tools of the European Society for Medical Oncology(ESMO) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology(ASCO). Korean Cancer Study Group (KCSG) has been conducting researches on 'Analysis of valuation tools for foreign cancer drugs and their application in Korea' as a service project of the HIRA (Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service) since June. KCSG conducted perception survey of 17 oncologists (1st), 165 stakeholders(2nd), and 20 specialists in hematology and oncology(3rd) in order to explore Wertform model of Korean anticancer drugs to evaluate the value of high-priced anticancer drugs using ESMO and ASCO. Prof. Ryu, Min-hee Prof Ryu, Min-hee, trustee of KCSG director presented the results of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd perceptions at the public hearing on Oct 23, and many respondents responded positively to using the value evaluation tool as an anticancer health insurance benefit or afterlife assessment criteria. In the first survey of 17 oncologists, efficacy was considered ranked first when prescribing general anticancer drugs and immune chemotherapy, 94.1% and 75%, respectively. Only 1 (5.9%) responded that the MD considered costs for generic anticancer drugs, while 3 (18.75%) answered that they considered costs for immune chemotherapy. Anticancer drug evaluation items of ASCO and ESMO consists of efficacy and toxicity. When asked about the appropriate ratio in Korea, 58.8% of respondents answered that 70% efficacy and 30% toxicity. The other 23.5% said 60% efficacy and 40% toxicity, and the remaining 17.6% said 80% efficacy and 20% toxicity. The ASCO anti-cancer drug value evaluation reflects additional scores in improving the quality of life (QoL) besides efficacy and toxicities. If the sum of the importance of anticancer efficacy and toxicity is 100, 47.4% answered 20% of the appropriate quality of life ratio. the remaining 37.5% chose 10%, and 6.3% over 30%. As a result of asking the oncologist about the cost of drugs that are not included in the two valuation tools, 43.8% of the respondents consider it to be 60% to 80%. Domestic clinicians are also considering the burden of drug costs. When the Korean anti-cancer drug value evaluation tool developed by the government is developed, 50% of respondents said 'use it as evaluation standard when applying health insurance', and 31.3% said 'use it for evaluating the efficacy of anti-cancer drug after marketing' and the rest ‘ used by MD to decide on patient treatments.'' The second perception survey was conducted by oncologists, nurses, and pharmacists at the ASCO in Busan in last August. Occupation rate was 49.4% of doctors, 35.5% of nurses, and 11.4% of the pharmaceutical industry. The rest chose a duplicate with the others. In the survey of stakeholders, more than half of the respondents said that more than half of the respondents chose to choose generic anticancer drugs or immunocancer drugs with the most importance of efficacy. In addition, 97.6% of the respondents said that it is necessary to develop an anti-cancer drug clinical evaluation tool for the Korean situation. In particular, the majority of opinions that the valuation tool should be used as a standard of health insurance benefits or afterlife assessment. 90.4% of respondents said that value evaluation tools that reflect clinical effects, toxicity, and quality of life should be used as criteria for determining health insurance benefits. 93.4% of respondents said they needed to use a value evaluation tool as a post-registration evaluation tool for conditionally listed anticancer drugs. The third recognition survey was conducted with 20 hematological oncologists from MM working party. More than 90% of the respondents consider the effects of selecting general anticancer drugs and immunocancer drugs. The drug costs were 5% and 10%, respectively. Respectively 80%, 90% of the respondents commented on the need to use a value evaluation tool as a basis for reimbursement decision and afterlife assessment. Prof. Ryu said, "The results showed that they takes count of the efficacy the most when prescribing general anticancer drugs and immunocancer drugs. Education and seminars were needed to utilize and apply the research tools." The response was positive for being used as reimbursement standards or fterlife assessment standards” Prof. Ryu said, "New Bio drugs such as anticancer drugs are shifting the paradigm of disease treatment with new treatment mechanisms and improved effects. However, some high-cost anticancer drugs raise questions about the uncertainty of cost effectiveness compared to the therapeutic effect." "We need to consider introducing an objective and standardized drug valuation tool for fiscal integrity and sustainability."
- Product
- 7 out of 10 doctors exposed to patient violence
- by Kang, Shin-Kook Nov 15, 2019 06:29am
- Apparently, seven out of ten doctors have faced verbal abuse or physical violence against them by a patient or their family. On Nov. 13, Korean Medical Association (KMA, President Choi Dae-zip) published a result of an urgent survey conducted on 2,034 member doctors of the organization. The survey result found among 1,455 doctors (71.5 percent), who have experienced verbal abuse or physical violence against them committed by a patient or their family in exam room in last three years, about 15 percent of them have been physically assaulted, and 10.4 percent ended up with a physical damage. KMA President Choi Dae-zip And more than a half of the surveyed doctors said they have experienced verbal abuse and physical violence against them about once or twice a year. 9.2 percent answered they have been in such situation at least once a month. Most of such aggression was fired up by medical exam results, and some other cases were sparked from complaints of long waiting time and expensive medical service charges. Moreover, 61 percent of the doctors answered a patient or their family came back to the abused doctor later for medical service. 1,254 doctors (61.7 percent) among them have also been forcefully demanded by a visitor to forge a medical report or falsely edit already issued medical record. “The association aims to protect member doctors by introducing a new bill that stipulates punishment on visitors demanding doctors to forge medical record. KMA is committed to have the lawmakers to promptly legislate bills to protect doctors in vulnerable position. The association has been constantly urging the law turning down an indictment for committed assault in healthcare institute when a victim drops the charges should be abolished, and also doctor’s rights to refuse patients should be legally justified. The latest survey has provided us enough concerning evidences,” said KMA official. Moreover, KMA officials pointed out “The survey result says only 6.9 percent of the doctors at the moment have a protected space or facility to avoid verbal abuse and physical violence in an exam room. It means most of the doctors are vulnerably exposed to the harmful threats. The government should pay more attention on creating a safer environment for healthcare institutes”.
