Lowered Price for the 'Miracle Anticancer Drug'... Big 5 Hospitals Rush to Provide Dedicated Treatment and Prescriptions

CAR-T Therapy 'Kymriah' Copayment
Reduced from 400 Million to Up to 5.98 Million Won
Complete Cure of Leukemia and Lymphoma with One Dose
Successful Treatments Continue... Center Fully Operational

Kimlia. / Photo by Korea Novartis

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] With the decision to apply health insurance coverage for the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy drug "Kymriah" (generic name tisagenlecleucel), known as the so-called "miracle anticancer drug," the "Big 5" hospitals are taking swift steps to establish dedicated treatment centers for prescribing CAR-T therapies.

According to the medical community on the 22nd, Kymriah, the world's first CAR-T therapy developed by Novartis, has seen patient out-of-pocket costs reduced from 400 million KRW to a maximum of 5.98 million KRW since April due to health insurance coverage. Kymriah is so effective that it is called a "one-shot anticancer drug," as a single administration can cure patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma to a near-complete remission level.

CAR-T therapy works by introducing genetic information into a patient's immune cells so they can recognize specific antigens on cancer cells and attack them. Since the therapy is made based on the patient's own immune cells, it is a thoroughly personalized treatment. Naturally, mass production is impossible, and specialized facilities capable of reliably collecting cells are required. In the case of Kymriah, when a hospital prescribes it, the patient's cells are collected and sent to the United States, where Novartis manufactures the therapy and sends it back to the hospital. Hospitals must have pharmaceutical manufacturing and quality control (GMP) facilities capable of extracting, storing, and processing patient cells and must obtain human cell management business approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to prescribe CAR-T therapies.

Given this complex process, the most advanced institutions in Korea are the Big 5 hospitals (Seoul Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital, and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital). Samsung Medical Center opened the first "CAR-T Cell Therapy Center" in Korea on April 1 last year. Since 2020, it has been steadily preparing by establishing GMP facilities within the Future Medical Research Institute in collaboration with the domestic company Curecell and preparing for CAR-T clinical trials. Seoul St. Mary's Hospital signed an agreement with Novartis in March this year and began full-scale Kymriah prescriptions by establishing a cell processing GMP facility. Seoul National University Hospital and Severance Hospital have also opened specialized centers, and Seoul Asan Medical Center is reportedly in the final preparation stage and will officially operate its CAR-T center starting next month.

Successful treatment cases using CAR-T therapy prescriptions are also being reported one after another. Seoul National University Hospital announced in April that it successfully treated an 18-year-old pediatric leukemia patient with a self-produced CAR-T therapy, the first such case in a domestic hospital. The patient had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation but relapsed, after which CAR-T therapy was administered, and follow-up bone marrow tests confirmed the complete disappearance of leukemia cells. Seoul St. Mary's Hospital also decided to treat an 8-year-old patient whose leukemia relapsed despite hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with Kymriah and administered it on the 14th of last month. The patient, discharged on the 1st of this month, was confirmed to have reached complete remission during a regular check-up on the 7th, six days after discharge. Lee Jae-wook, head of the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Center at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, said, "We have established a systematic treatment system to ensure that the new therapy can be safely applied," adding, "We will continue to expand the pool of eligible patients and carefully manage long-term complications that may arise after new treatments."

Although Kymriah currently represents CAR-T therapies in Korea, the number of CAR-T therapies introduced domestically is expected to increase. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved six CAR-T therapies, including Kymriah. Additionally, domestic companies such as Curecell, Abclon, HK inno.N, and GC Cell have entered development. A pharmaceutical industry official said, "As CAR-T therapies reach commercialization, actual prescriptions and treatments will significantly increase, so it is necessary to provide patients with diverse treatment opportunities," adding, "If domestic development succeeds, it will also greatly help reduce drug cost burdens."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.