Posted by Michael Wonder on 26 Sep 2025
HIRA calls for insurance overhaul to ensure access to high cost orphan drugs
26 September 2025 - The Government has proposed that a new health insurance reimbursement system must be designed to ensure patients requiring “high-cost orphan drugs” -- which are no longer rare due to advances in medical technology -- can consistently access them.
Lee So-young, director of the Drug Effectiveness Evaluation Division at the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), emphasised the necessity of designing a new reimbursement system during a symposium titled “Treatment Directions for Rare and Severe Diseases and Social Ethics” co-hosted by HIRA, the Korean Society for Medical Ethics, and the Korean Bioethics Association on Thursday.
