‘Drug pricing and reimb' needs most regulatory improvement

according to survey on both Korean and multinational phamaceutical companies

Interview with Pharma-Bio CEOs ②Regulatory perceptions of Korean vs multinational pharmaceutical company

10 of 11 multinational pharmaceutical companies point to Korea’s unreasonable drug pricing policy, satisfaction score 2.9.

CEOs of both domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies alike identified 'drug prices and reimbursement as in need of most regulatory improvement.

 

CEOs of multinational pharmaceutical companies only gave a 2-point range satisfaction score in terms of satisfaction with Korea’s drug pricing and reimbursement regulations.

 

This indicates how CEOs are even more dissatisfied with regulations that affect the management of pharmaceutical companies, such as new drug registration, generic reevaluation, and reimbursement reevaluations.

 

According to Dailypharm's survey of 53 CEOs of pharmaceutical companies, CEOs of both domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies had a negative perception of government regulations.

 

Among the 42 CEOs of domestic pharmaceutical companies, 34% said that their attitude towards government regulations was negative, which is three higher than the 10% who said they had a positive attitude.

 

More than half of domestic pharma CEOs described government regulation as ‘moderate.’ CEOs of multinational pharmaceutical companies were even more towards government regulations.

 

Of the 11 multinational pharmaceutical company CEOs, 73% had a negative view of government regulation.

 

"Very negative" and "negative" responses accounted for 18% and 55%, respectively.

 

Not one respondent had a positive view of government regulation.

 

The area with the most common complaints was drug pricing and reimbursement.’.

 

When asked to name the most unreasonable regulations, 57% of respondents cited reimbursement and drug pricing.

 

This means that three out of five pharma CEOs perceive reimbursement and drug pricing regulations as the most unreasonable.

 

25% of respondents cited licensing, production, and quality control as having the most unreasonable regulations.

 

Only 11% said distribution, sales, and marketing regulations were the most unreasonable.

 

Both domestic and multinational pharma CEOs were most dissatisfied with drug price and reimbursement regulations.

 

Nearly half, 48%, of the 42 CEOs from domestic pharmaceutical companies said that reimbursement and drug pricing regulations were the most unreasonable.

 

Licensing, production, and quality control followed at 29%.

 

More than 10 out of 11 (90%) multinational pharma CEOs perceived that the drug pricing and reimbursement system was unreasonable.

 

It is noteworthy that the multinational pharmaceutical companies, which are responsible for a sizable proportion of new drug listing and sales, are most dissatisfied with drug pricing and reimbursement listing regulations in place for market entry.

 

The dissatisfaction with the drug pricing and reimbursement system among MNCs was also evident in the specific indicators.

 

CEOs of multinational pharmaceutical companies gave a satisfaction score of 2.90 points for Korea’s drug pricing and reimbursement system.

 

This is significantly lower than the 3.24 score given by domestic pharmaceutical CEOs.

 

73% of multinational pharma CEOs said that new drug approval is in need of the most urgent improvement.

 

Even if a new drug is developed and approved by company headquarters after a long period of research and development (R&D), there are many cases where their launch is delayed or abandoned in Korea due to inadequate drug prices or reimbursement.

 

CEOs of domestic pharmaceutical companies perceived post-generic drug price reductions as the most problematic.

 

Last year, the government lowered the prices of more than 7,000 drugs through generic drug price reevaluations, and the industry complained that repeated generic drug price reductions due to system changes threaten business.

 

CEOs of domestic pharmaceutical companies also pointed out the need to improve reimbursement reevaluations (21%) and price-volume agreement systems (18%).