Health insurance prices have been lowered for a series of widely prescribed medicines in South Korea, including Celltrion's (068270.KS) autoimmune disease treatment Remsima, JW Pharmaceutical's (001060.KS) dyslipidemia drug Livalo Zet and Yuhan's (000100.KS) dyslipidemia drug Rosuvamibe. The reductions came under a price-volume agreement system, which adjusts prices for medicines whose insurance claims have risen sharply on strong patient demand. Prices for a total of 80 products were cut by an average of 4.6% this year.
The National Health Insurance Service said on the 18th that it had completed negotiations with drugmakers covering 81 products subject to "Type C" price-volume agreements for 2026. Prices for 80 of those products were lowered as of the 1st of this month, while the remaining product kept its price under a one-time rebate contract in which the drugmaker returns part of the added spending caused by higher usage.
The price-volume agreement system allows the insurer to negotiate lower prices when usage of a drug covered by health insurance rises sharply enough to strain insurance finances. Type C applies to drugs whose claims rose more than 60% from a year earlier, or rose more than 10% with an increase of at least 5 billion won.
The latest round of cuts covers many of the pharmaceutical industry's leading products. Along with Celltrion's Remsima, JW Pharmaceutical's Livalo Zet and Yuhan's Rosuvamibe, they include Chong Kun Dang's (185750.KS) hypertension treatment Telminuvo and SK Chemicals' (285130.KS) osteoarthritis drug Joins. Because each dosage and formulation counts as a separate product, multiple products from a single brand were subject to cuts at the same time.
The average price cut across the 80 products was 4.6%, and the insurer expects the reductions to save about 33.9 billion won in health insurance funds. The number of products under negotiation fell by 36 to 81 this year from 117 a year earlier, but the projected savings were close to the 33.7 billion won recorded last year. As a result, average savings per product rose 50% to 420 million won from 280 million won.
Hypertension and cholesterol treatments accounted for 43.2% of the drugs whose prices were lowered, reflecting rising use of such medicines as the population ages and the number of patients with chronic conditions grows. Because many of these patients take the drugs over long periods, the insurer expects the adjustment to help ease their spending on medication.
One infertility treatment was exempted from a price cut, with the drugmaker agreeing instead to make a one-time rebate of the added spending. The insurer took into account that a price cut could affect stable supply at a time when usage has risen because of expanded government support for couples struggling with infertility as part of efforts to address the low birth rate.
"We will continue to strengthen management of drugs with a large impact on insurance finances through price-volume negotiations and keep working to ease the public's spending on medication," said Kim Nam-hoon, the insurer's executive director for benefits.
