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Comparing South Korean drug prices with foreign countries’
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Comparing South Korean drug prices with foreign countries’
  • Hyeokgi Lee, Newsmp
  • 승인 2021.07.19 17:08
  • 댓글 0
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Originalㆍbiopharmaceuticals are relatively cheap… genericㆍnon-brand drugs are more expensive

Brand-name drugs (original pharmaceutical products), biopharmaceuticals, and non-biopharmaceuticals were found to be relatively cheap in Korea compared to foreign countries.

On the other hand, prices of generic drugs and non-brand drugs have been confirmed to be high in Korea.

Non-brand drugs are terms for brand generics and generic drugs.

Director Oh Ki-hwan (오기환 전무) and Manager Yeom Ji-won (염지원 과장) of the Korea BIO (Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization) recently introduced the contents of the International Prescription Drug Price Comparisons (RAND) published by RAND Corporation, an American research organization.

The U.S., the world’s largest drug market, has 3.05 times higher ETC (Ethical The Counter) drug prices than Korea, according to the 2018 IQVUA MIDAS data that compared drug prices between the U.S. and OECD member countries. In other words, the price of Korean drugs is about one-third of that of the U.S.

Among ETCs, brand-name drugs were about 5.32 times higher in the U.S. than in Korea, and the top 60 drugs in the U.S. sales were 5.78 times more expensive, biopharmaceuticals 4.53 times, and non-biopharmaceuticals 2.38 times.

Unlikely, the price of generic drugs (chemicals generics excluding biopharmaceuticals such as biosimilars) in the U.S. was about 32% lower than that of Korea. In the case of non-brand drugs, pharmaceuticals were priced at 57% of Korea’s.

Of course, the U.S. is a country with high drugs prices, but the U.S. ETC price is 2.56 times higher than the average price of 32 OECD countries.

Compared to the average of 32 OECD countries excluding the U.S., drug price gap was not big as the U.S., but the structure was the same.

Korea’s drug prices were lower than the average of 32 OECD countries,

Among ETCs, brand-name drugs, top 60 drugs in the U.S. sales, biopharmaceuticals, and non-biopharmaceuticals prices in Korea were beneath the average of 32 OECD countries, and generic drugs and non-brand drugs were higher in Korea.

In particular, the price difference for non-brand drugs was larger in the Korea-OECD 32 than Korea-U.S.


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