Pharmaceutical News
Three lines of defense to double the survival rate of lung cancer by 2025
2021/12/30

 

The United Daily News organized a forum on forming strategies for the treatment and prevention of lung cancer, as well as lowering the disease’s mortality rate, which saw attendance by Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung, Academic Sinica Academian Yang Pan-chih, medical associations and patient groups.

 

Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung said that, lung cancer is one of the most fatal diseases in Taiwan, with the number of deaths from the disease ranking first among the top ten cancers, as well as ranking second in incidence. To achieve the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s policy white paper goal to lower the early mortality rate to 25 percent by 2025, low-dose computerized tomography (LDCT) has been added as a screening measure to guard against lung cancer as well as five other types of cancers.

 

Minister Chen said that in the past seven years, prescriptions of lung cancer drugs have been rising by an average of 15 percent annually, leading to mounting expenditures and impacts to the National Health Insurance (NHI) system. Minister Chen said that while the NHI can still withstand further increases in expenditure, the system must make preparations, noting that at seven percent of the GDP,

 

In addition, for companion biological testing, Chen Shih-chung pointed out that the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), in cooperation with the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and pharmaceutical companies, will use the biological database platform and data analytics to "to make medicine prescription more precise" through genetic sequencing. Chief of the Medical Review and Pharmaceutical Benefits Division Tai Hsueh-yung revealed that the NHI is already in the final review stage to include next generation sequencing under NHI reimbursement.

 

Dr. Chang Wen-chen, president of the Taiwan Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (TSIC) and director of the Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital's Oncology Department, pointed out that medical societies are hoping that the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) will provide coverage for the next-generation gene sequencing as soon as possible. He also said that clinical trials are opportunities for patients to obtain drugs and suggested optimizing the clinical trial platform and improving the ease of enrollment in clinical trials. He also advocated to obtain a special budget to support NHI finances.

 

 

[2021-12-28/United Daily News]