South Korea is laying the groundwork for improved access to personalised healthcare options, with a focus on building capabilities to allow for personalisation of healthcare, in partnership with the Korean government and industry leaders.
In 2022, a consortium was established with Roche, and several other stakeholders, to do exactly this.
These efforts are driven by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) and Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), working with medical societies including the Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO), the Korean Cancer Study Group (KCSG), and the National Cancer Centre, alongside Roche.
“We are building a personalised healthcare ecosystem through this alliance of industries, government and academic groups, focused on influencing expansion of more targeted therapeutic options for patients with different types of cancer across Korea”
Following the initiation of the pilot study KOSMOS, which explored the use of molecularly guided (or ‘targeted’) treatment options based on understanding of genomic alterations in tumours, expansion projects are now underway in Korea. These are focused on exploring pathways to extend access to targeted treatment options for the over 250,000 new cancer patients diagnosed each year in the country, as well as establishing a new guideline framework under which this expansion might take place.
In Korea, the Health Insurance and Review Assessment (HIRA), is a government agency under MOHW responsible for claims review and quality assessment of the National Health Insurance. Via this collaboration, the hope is to capture real-world evidence to support expansion of effective molecularly guided treatment options through HIRA’s off-label list of treatments.