South Korea's Pharma price setting system under criticism

Claims have been made that, in order for South Korea to become a new drug powerhouse of a global scale, the unreasonable price setting system for new drugs must be improved first, reports the local Munhwa Ilbo newspaper, which has been posted on the website of trade group KRPIA, which represents the research-based pharmaceutical industry.

One major flaw of the price setting structure is that the prices of new drugs are set lower than those of the existing drugs. This is because the current system focuses on pharmaco-economic assessment rather than its medical values. Such system lowers the motivation of the industry, the newspaper argues. It has been pointed out that the government must establish a price setting system that properly reflects the value of new drugs, and also provide a positive cycle structure for R&D investment.

Priority for improving drug pricing system