Rebamipide survives reimb evaluations...a relief

for companies relying on the KRW 140 bil cash cow

Health authorities conclude that reimbursement is appropriate...Prescriptions increased by 58% in 4 years

Demand surged since the withdrawal of ranitidine... Market expansion due to the introduction of extended-release tablets

The gastric ulcer treatment ‘rebamipide’ survived Korea’s reimbursement reevaluations.

 

As a result, pharmaceutical companies were able to hold on to their cash cow that brings in KRW 140 billion per year.

 

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service concluded that the active substance rebamipide was adequate for reimbursement after discussing the Revaluation Results on of the Adequacy of Reimbursement 2023 National Health Insurance Drug reimbursement adequacy reevaluations at its recent Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee meeting.

 

Rebamipide is a muscoprotectant that prevents peptic ulcers by reducing f gastric mucosal blood flow.

 

It has various indications for improving gastric ulcers and gastric mucosal lesions.

 

The original product is Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s ‘Mucosta.’ From the companies' perspective, they were able to preserve their cash cow and a market that is worth more than KRW 100 billion a year This anti-ulcer drug’s use has increased significantly recently.

 

According to the pharmaceutical research institute UBIST, outpatient prescriptions for rebamipide last year amounted to KRW 143.1 billion.

 

This is a 19.7% increase from the KRW 119.5 billion prescribed in 2021.

 

Outpatient prescription sales of rebamipide by year (unit: KRW 100 million, Data: UBIST).

Rebamipide was approved in Korea more than 30 years ago, and sales of generic products began in 2003, so the market is not subject to much change.

 

However, its market had grown rapidly after the impurity issue arose for ranitidine in 2019.

 

At the end of September 2019, the government banned sales of all products containing the H2 receptor antagonist anti-ulcer drug 'ranitidine' due to excess detection of carcinogenic N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) impurities.

 

The ranitidine market has been a large market with prescriptions that amounted to approximately KRW 180 billion in 2018.

 

As a result, the rebamipide prescription market grew 7.6% from KRW 90.7 billion in 2018 to KRW 97.6 billion in 2019.

 

In 2020, it increased 15.2% YoY and exceeded KRW 100 billion in prescriptions for the first time.

 

Last year, prescriptions grew 57.7% over the past 4 years compared to that in 2018.

 

Recently, the introduction of rebamipide extended-release tablets has led to market expansions.

 

Extended-release tablets allow patients to reduce the number of doses to two times a day, compared to the three times a day required for previous products.

 

Yuhan Corp, GC Biopharma, Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, and Daewon Pharmaceutical jointly developed sustained-release dosage forms of rebamipide and received approval in December 2020.

 

Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical also entered the time-release formulation market after receiving approval for its Mucosta SR in January 2021.

 

In the H1 this year, the rebamipide prescription market continued its upward trend, increasing 11.1% YoY to reach KRW 75.8 billion.

 

Looking at the prescription amount of the major rebamipide drugs in the market, Mucosta posted KRW 12.4 billion in 1H, up 11.2% YoY.

 

Mucosta posted prescription sales of KRW23.1 billion won last year.

 

Prescriptions for Yuhan Corp’s Recomid in H1 this year amounted to KRW 3.8 billion, up 17.4% YoY.

 

Huons' Mucoramine prescriptions in H1 this year rose 17.0% YoY, to record KRW 3 billion.