Minister Jeong backs INN prescribing for shortage drugs

MOHW Minister Eun Kyeong Jeong agrees on the need for INN prescribing for medicines with supply instability…reviews measures for its introduction

“Medical community strongly opposes…will gather consensus through social agreement”

Rep. Jong-tae Jang: “Generic usage rate: 91% in the US, 80% in Japan and the UK…INN-related law would be needed”

Minister of Health and Welfare Eun-kyeong Jeong expressed support for introducing international nonproprietary name (INN) prescribing and expanding substitution dispensing by pharmacists for medicines facing supply instability, as they are national policy tasks.

 

However, she stressed the need to build social consensus given strong opposition from the medical community.

 

Minister Jeong also expressed her intent to establish a direction through research services on how to monitor out-of-stock drugs and set criteria and definitions to resolve the unstable supply of pharmaceuticals.

 

During the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee audit on the 30th, Minister Jeong responded so to Rep.

 

Jong-tae Jang Democratic Party of Korea) on his inquiries.

 

Rep.

 

Jang had proposed a bill mandating limited INN prescribing for pharmaceuticals with unstable supply.

 

Minister Jeong appealed to the validity of limited INN prescribing, citing factors such as the excessively low domestic substitution rate compared to advanced countries overseas.

 

Rep Jang’s view is that legislating INN prescribing and promoting substitution can simultaneously achieve three goals: resolving the unstable supply of medicines, reducing the National Health Insurance Service's drug expenditure burden, and strengthening patients' choice of medicines.

 

Rep.

 

Jang explained, “In the U.S., nearly all states legally allow pharmacists to substitute with equivalent generic drugs.

 

Some states have even introduced automatic substitution.

 

They also adopt a system where the National Health Insurance prioritizes generic drugs for reimbursement and imposes additional coinsurance rates when original brand drugs are prescribed.

 

As a result, generic prescriptions account for 91% of prescriptions.” He added, “In Japan, pharmacists can freely substitute drugs unless specifically prohibited by a ‘do not substitute’ label.

 

Since last year, they've even introduced a surcharge for requesting brand-name drugs when an original prescription is specified.

 

Pharmacies and medical institutions receive incentives based on their generic drug prescription rates, resulting in an 82% generic prescription rate.” Rep.

 

Jang stated, “The domestic situation, with generic substitution at only 1.5%, is woefully low compared to the US at 90% and Japan and the UK at 80%.

 

The Lee Jae-myung administration's core pledges are resolving essential drug shortages, promoting generic substitution, optimizing drug expenditure efficiency, and solving the rebate issue.

 

The amendment to the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act mandating INN prescriptions is a proven policy to achieve this.

 

What does the Minister think about this?“ Minister Jeong replied, “It is included in the national agenda to review INN prescribing and utilize substitution for drugs with unstable supply.

 

We will consider introducing INN prescribing for essential medicines with unstable supply first.” She added, “Given the significant opposition and disagreement in the medical community, we will proceed through social consensus and dialogue.

 

We also need to discuss how to monitor and define drugs with unstable supply, so we will conduct a short-term research project and discuss the results with MFDS.”