Change to Taiwan's drug expenditure targets in 2013 "unlikely," says analyst

Despite strong industry lobbying it now seems unlikely that the eighth round of price reductions following the biennial cycle of price-volume surveys can be avoided in Taiwan, the sixth-largest market for medicines in Asia-Pacific, according to Donald Macarthur, a widely-read analytical writer on international pharmaceutical business issues.

Cuts are due to take effect in December 2013. The R&D pharmaceutical sector proposed and government supported an alternative approach – an annual drug expenditure target (DET) with an industry-wide payback in the event of an overrun.

The matter was supposed to have been decided at September’s meeting of the Department of Health’s Medical Expenditure Negotiating Committee, but no consensus was reached. DET did not resurface for discussion at either the MENC’s October or November meeting.