KMPG ‘We ask for the prompt reimbursement of Xpovio’

“a drug that is currently listed in all A9 countries”

Korea Multiple Myeloma Patient Group called on DREC to pass Xpovio’s reimbursement agenda next month

Patients’ demand for the reimbursement listing of ‘Xpovio 20mg (selinexor),’ a new drug for multiple myeloma that was developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Antengene, is growing.

 

The patients are claiming that they are becoming ‘medical poor’ due to the delay in the reimbursement of the only option available in the area.

 

Xpovio’s reimbursement agenda has been stuck at the reimbursement stage for more than 3 years since it was approved in Korea and is being delayed without a viable alternative.

 

The Korea Multiple Myeloma Patient Group issued a statement on the 19th and strongly urged the authorities to consider the patients’ situations.

 

The KMPG chairman said, "We strongly urge the Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee, which will meet in May, to expedite the reimbursement of Xpovio, the only light of hope remaining for the fading flickers of life for our multiple myeloma patients.” Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer caused by the abnormal differentiation and proliferation of plasma cells, a type of white blood cells responsible for the immune system, in the bone marrow.

 

Xpovio Tab 20mg, which was developed to treat the disease, was approved by the MFDS and introduced to Korea on July 29, 2021.

 

On June 14, 2023, the drug’s reimbursement application passed HIRA’s Cancer Disease Review Committee but suffered a setback right before its reimbursements when it was deemed non-reimbursable by DREC in November of the same year.

 

Min-Hwan Baek, Chairman of KMPG, said, “Xpovio is currently being reimbursed in not only the A8 countries but A9 countries, being granted reimbursement in the United States, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

 

But in Korea, patients are dying due to the drug’s non-reimbursement.

 

I lay awake night after night as chairman of KMPG, worrying about the patients who are dying needless deaths due to lack of other options than the non-reimbursed, unaffordable Xpovio.” "It has come to the point where many patients who turned medical poor due to Xpovio’s non-coverage are giving up on treatment," said KMPG, urging for the prompt reimbursement of Xpovio.