• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.52-70
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• 2009

This study is to analyse the reimbursement prices of drugs in Japan. Japan has the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market, and the world's largest price-controlled pharmaceutical market. The reimbursement prices of new drugs in Japan are determined by confidential negotiations between the manufacturer and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. Pharmaceuticals account for a larger share of total healthcare expenditures in Japan than in most other major pharmaceutical markets such as France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States. Prescription drugs' share of total healthcare spending has slightly increased in recent years, from 20.2% in 2000 to 21.5% in 2004, the most recent year for which data are currently available. This trend is attributable to the effect of the Japanese rapidly aging population that stimulates demand for healthcare services. There are several method of price setting for drugs as below. First, on the initial pricing of branded drugs, is the similar-efficacy pricing method and cost calculation method. Second is postmarketing price changes which are biennial price revisions under the rule of National Health Insurance. Third is the rule of the generics price. Recently, the generics market is expanded because there are increasing numbers of hospitals by DPCs(Diagnosis-procedure Combinations).

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.213-218
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• 2013

This study examines factors associated with fixed budgets for pharmaceuticals and clawback system for pharmaceutical industry in European countries. We used information from a survey held in 2005~2006 by Austrian Health Institute. Several information including pharmaceutical pricing policies, marketing conditions for pharmaceutical industry and patient' choice of drugs was collected. Five out of twenty five countries in EU were considered as countries with fixed budgets for pharmaceuticals and remaining 20 countries were considered as countries without fixed budget system. Comparisons were made for each information. Countries with fixed budgets for pharmaceuticals were more likely to have internal (or external) reference pricing system and other pricing mechanisms. In addition, they were more likely to permit pharmaceutical industry to be engaged in public advertising and information provision towards patients. They guaranteed patient participation in drug choice decisions. The countries with fixed budgets for pharmaceuticals were more likely to have conditions that enable the fixed budget system to work better compared to those without fixed budget system. Therefore, the study results imply that we need to check whether we have similar conditions to the countries that already have fixed budgets for pharmaceuticals when we want to introduce fixed budget mechanism for pharmaceuticals in Korea in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.132-157
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• 2011

The purpose of this article is to examine the cause of policy non-compliance in the case of pharmaceutical rebates from the perspective of rational choice institutionalism. In Korea, there have been rebates practices between pharmaceutical companies and hospitals since the introduction of the Actual Remuneration System for insured medicine in 1999. The government has chosen the policy means of punishment to eliminate pharmaceutical rebates but the illegal practices are still widespread. Institution in rational choice institutionalism usually reflects the incentives and preferences of actors, and the Actual Remuneration System has resulted in a the lack of procedures to ensure savings on drug expenditures. Pharmaceutical rebates are the product of the institutions which reflect their incentives: the Actual Remuneration System, the current pricing policy for generic drugs, the drug distribution system, and so on. In the end, the problem of the rebates is the consequence of policy non-compliance as actors' rational choice because their incentives lead to opportunistic behaviors. We should therefore understand the incentive structure of policy stakeholders, which is derived from the view of new institutionalism; also, the newly designed Korean drug pricing policy reform must be compatible with the incentive structure.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2018

Objective: This study examined the Risk Sharing Agreement (RSA) on pharmaceutical pricing system in Korean national health insurance. Through RSA, the insurer was able to maintain the principles in the price listing process while managing the budget effectively and improving patient access to new drugs. Despite these positive effects, there are still issues raised by some stakeholders, such as lack of transparency in the listing process and doubts about its effectiveness. Therefore, we investigated the impacts of RSA on national health insurance financing and patient access to analyze the effects of RSA. Methods: The impact of RSA was investigated by analyzing the health insurance claims data for 2014~2016. The degree of improvement in patient access was determined by the decreased amount of patients' payment. Results: Results showed that the financial impact of RSA was not significant and patients' access to the new drug greatly improved. Conclusion: These results show that RSA is a good system for improving patient access to new drugs without additional expense on insurance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.69-73
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• 2008

To curb a rapid increase in expenditures for pharmaceuticals, the Korean government introduced a positive list system and a negotiation process for drug prices at the end of 2006. Economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals has begun to have a pivotal role in the listing and pricing of drugs for the Korean National Health Insurance. There are some points to discuss regarding the use of economic evaluation in the listing and pricing in the context of the Korean system. First, the listing and pricing processes have been fragmented, evoking complaints from pharmaceutical companies and delaying the access of new drugs to patients. Second, there is a concern that the positive list system may limit the range and availability of drugs for patients to choose for treatment. Third, the time schedule for de-listing of existing drugs may not be realistic. Fourth, it is not always easy to provide reliable evidence of cost-effectiveness due to a lack of materials. Fifth, there is no consensus on the range of the ICER (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio) acceptable to the Korean society. In conclusion, in the near future, it will be necessary to evaluate the achievements that the economic evaluation has provided to the Korean society.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2015

Background & Methods: The purpose of this research is to estimate the efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms and the determinants of their efficiency. Stochastic frontier analysis(SFA) and panel study are applied to the data of 60 domestic pharmaceutical firms from 2006 to 2012. Results & Conclusion: First, the result of the stochastic frontier analysis shows that overall efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms is increasing as time goes by. However, if firms are classified by the scale, the larger firms show more efficiency and if classified by the degree of innovativeness, the innovative firms show more efficiency compared to the non-innovative firms. This evidences show that the scale and R&D investment have significant relationships with the efficiency of the pharmaceutical firms. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the national level of investment for the fundamental researches to vitalize R&D of the new drugs. Second, the result of estimation of the determinants of efficiency shows that the firms with larger sales promotion expenses and entertainment expenses have less efficiency compared to the other firms. This can be explained by the structural characteristics of the small generic pharmaceutical firms. Therefore, the government had better make the pharmaceutical firms to reduce sales promotion and entertainment expenses and increase R&D expenses by introducing systems such as global budgeting system on medicine or reference pricing system.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.360-368
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• 2018

Background: The proportion of pharmaceutical expenditure out of total health-care expenditure in South Korea is high. In 2016, 25.7% of national health insurance (NHI) spending was for pharmaceuticals. Given the increasing demands for the access to newly introduced medicines and following increase in pharmaceutical spending, the management of NHI pharmaceutical expenditure is becoming more difficult. Methods: This study analyzed the data claimed to NHI for pharmaceutical reimbursement from 2010 to 2016. Results: The policy implications with respect to the trends and problems in spending by drug groups were elicited. First, the proportion of off-patent drugs spending which were treated to chronic disease was much higher than anti-cancer drug spending. Second, the spending to the newly introduced high-costed medicine increased, however, current price-reduction mechanism was not sufficient to manage their expenditure efficiently. Conclusion: Our system seems to need several revisions to improve the efficiency of pharmaceutical expenditure and to cope with high-costed medicines. This study suggested that the prices of off-patent drugs need to be regularly readjusted and the Price-Volume Agreement System should be operated more flexibly as well.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.397-404
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• 2014

The Ministry of Health and Welfare proposed the "undergraduate program specializing in pharmaceutical industry" in 2013, as part of its roadmap to assist domestic pharmaceutical companies to become the top-tier pharma companies in near future and provide skilled personnel tailored for pharmaceutical industry. However, it is not clear whether this "undergraduate program" meets the needs of pharmaceutical industry, especially when the number of pharmacy students increased from 1,200 to 1,700 per year since 2009. The purpose of this paper is to identify which educational background is preferred by pharmaceutical companies, by surveying the CEOs of domestic pharmaceutical companies and referring to recruitment advertisements shown in medical newspapers, specified by the fields within the companies. Two independent reviewers referred to recruitment session in Yakup newspaper and Dailypharm from May 2012 until January 2014, focusing on recruitments from pharmaceutical companies targeting bachelors' degree holders with no prior experience. 749 recruitments were observed during the study period, more than 90% of which were provided by domestic pharmaceutical companies, and regardless of the companies being domestic or multinational, pharmaceutical companies' preference for pharmacists was remarkable (44.3% for domestic and 65.8% for multinational), and the preference was especially high in the fields such as Medical, R&D, Market Access (regulatory affair/pricing and reimbursement), Business Development, and Marketing. Survey results showed that the need of establishing the undergraduate program specializing in pharmaceutical industry is mixed, suggesting that although there is need for the educating personnel targeting pharmaceutical industry, the undergraduate program would not be an answer due to current PEET system. Our study concludes that in the example of pharmaceutical companies' recruitments shown in medical newspapers, pharmaceutical companies prefer pharmacy major in almost all fields of the pharmaceutical companies, yet the pharmaceutical companies still perceive the gap between current bachelor's degree holders(including pharmacy majors) and the ideal personnel required for advancing to the "top-class" pharmaceutical companies.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.157-169
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• 2015

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of various Republic of Korea policies, including the medicine cost rationalization policy implemented By investigating the management strategy/performance changes of the industry caused by such policies. Methods : Pharmaceutical companies listed on the national stock exchange and the KOSDAQ were examined for 10 years from 2004 to 2013. Their financial statements were collected and market changes before and after drug price policy implementations were compared. Results : From the result of this research, among the medicine related policies, the drug price rationalization policy was found to have a significant effect on business management strategies in terms of safety, profitability and growth potential after its implementation. After the drug pricing transparency policy was implemented, management strategies were affected significantly in terms of safety and profitability. Conclusions : As a result, all of the medicine related policies were found to have regulatory effects. Based on these findings, implications, research limitations and future study plans are presented.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.3016-3021
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• 2011

While there is ample information on the investment plans about Korea's selected new growth businesses, it is hard to find any analysis on the valuation of the projects. In this paper, I intend to do a valuation for the three particular technologies, which are solar cell, automotive battery, and bio-pharmaceutical, based on compound option model so that the valuation can capture not only the expected net cash flow but also the value originated from the flexibility of the decision maker. In addition, the real option pricing theory is reviewed and its practical limitations are thoroughly investigated.