The NHIA recently held the NHI Drug Dispensing Items and Fee Schedule Joint Establishment Meeting and draw the conclusions to expand the reimbursement regulations of some treatments, including drugs for community-acquired pneumonia, active psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, hemophilia, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, etc. The NHIA estimated that in the next five years, about 3,000-20,000 patients per year will benefit from these new regulations.
The NHIA expressed that community infection has drawn the public’s attention due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The first drug developed in Taiwan for treating community-acquired pneumonia has been available under the NHI since 2018. Considering that many patients have difficulties in taking this drug which is in capsule form, the Joint Establishment Meeting therefore decided to include its injection form into the NHI Benefit Scheme. The injection form could rapidly increase the blood concentration of the drug. This expansion will help 300-7,000 patients per year to control the infection. The Joint Establishment Meeting also agreed to give it a preferential drug price as an incentive for domestic R&D.
As for the biopharmaceutical containing ixekizumab for treating active psoriatic arthritis, the NHI has been providing this drug as a second line treatment. Clinical trials suggest that this drug is also effective in patients who haven’t received any biopharmaceutical treatments. Therefore, the Joint Establishment Meeting decided to increase the accessibility of the drug by providing it as a first line treatment and to increase its application to ankylosing spondylitis. About 1,200-2,800 patients per year will benefit from this new regulation.
This meeting also relaxed the reimbursement regulation of drugs containing simoctocog as a preventive treatment for severe hemophilia A. It will give doctors more flexibility in making prescriptions.
As the society is ageing, the population of Parkinson's disease continues to grow. The Joint Establishment Meeting hence agreed to list safinamide, a new drug for treating patients with specific Parkinson's disease. About 1,000-5,000 patients per year will benefit from this regulation.
The Joint Establishment Meeting also decided to add a new injection of brivaracetam, which is highly selective for synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2A) in the brain. It can be used for patients over 16 years of age with continuous seizures or status epilepticusn. It will help about 700 to 4,000 epilepsy patients per year.
Many reimbursement regulations are relaxed and added. As these drugs can replace current treatments and the NHIA is going to negotiate with drug manufacturers about cost sharing, the 5-year cost of these new regulations could be controlled under NT$200 million, said the NHIA. The new regulations could take effect as soon as from February 1st.
The NHIA will continue to improve the efficiency and reduce the waste of the resources by using the information generated from the Real World Evidence and the big data. The NHIA will continue to work with the Joint Establishment Committee and to take care of the people most in need.
【2022-01-04/ NHIA】
