Use of budget savings from patent expiration of cancer drugs to improve affordability and accessibility

BMC Health Services Research

Kyung-In Joung¹  Jun Young Kwon¹  Man-Jae Park¹  Heui Jae Kim¹  Dong Churl Suh¹  Seung Mi Lee²  Eun Suk Kim³  Hee Jung Back³  David Suh⁴ 

[1]College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University Seoul, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, 06974, Seoul, South Korea

[2]Daegu Catholic University College of Pharmacy, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

[3]Oncology Market Access, External Affairs, MSD Korea, Seoul, South Korea

[4]School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

关键词: Patent expiration;    Cancer drug;    Price;    Budget savings;    Generics;    Biosimilars;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12913-021-06130-y

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe introduction of generics after the loss of patent exclusivity plays a major role in budget savings by significantly decreasing drug prices. The aims of this study were to estimate the budget savings from off-patent cancer drugs in 2020–2024 and to inform decision makers on how these savings could be used to improve the affordability of innovative cancer treatments in South Korea.MethodsA model was developed to calculate budget savings from off-patent cancer drug use in Korea over 5 years (2020–2024). Cancer drugs with one or more valid patents that expire between 2020 and 2024 in Korea were selected. Key input parameters in the model included market share of generics, market growth, and prices of originators and generics. To reflect market dynamics after patent expiration, the trends of the off-patent market were estimated using historical sales volume data of IQVIA from 2012 to 2018. The study assumed that the prices of off-patent drugs decreased according to the price regulations set by the Korean government and that the off-patent market sales volume did not grow. Sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate the uncertainty in model input parameters.ResultsA total of 24 cancer drugs which met selection criteria were identified. In the base case analysis, patent expiration of cancer drugs between 2020 and 2024 could lead to a spending reduction of ₩234,429 million ($203 million), which was 20% of the cancer drug expenditure in the 5-year period. The savings ranged from ₩157,633 million ($136 million) to ₩434,523 million ($376 million) depending on the scenarios in sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that patent loss of cancer drugs could lead to a 20% reduction in spending on cancer drugs over the next 5 years in South Korea. The savings could be used to improve the affordability of innovative, advanced cancer drugs for 94,000 cancer patients by reallocating the budget savings from patent expiration.

【 授权许可】

CC BY