Korea’s Reimbursement Delay Is a Staffing Problem, and the Ministry Said So
- A survey commissioned by the Korea Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association and conducted by Gallup Korea from 1 to 10 July 2026 among 3,055 adults found 74.7% supporting an expedited reimbursement listing system for rare-disease drugs and 73.5% supporting shorter review periods for them.
- Presented with the current average of about 23 months between regulatory approval and inclusion in national health insurance, 67.6% called it too long. Among those, the average period considered appropriate was 8.5 months. Healthcare professionals were more critical than the general public, at 75.9% against 69.2%.
- Kang Jun-hyuk, director of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said the expedited reimbursement pilot is intended as a paradigm shift rather than a one-off, and that a second pilot or a move to a full programme would follow if needed.
- Kang also stated that staffing increases in his division have effectively stalled for several years, that limited personnel place practical constraints on speed, and that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety recently increased staffing for regulatory reviews while the health ministry did not secure a comparable expansion.
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An industry association commissioned a survey and found the public agrees with industry. The news arrived several paragraphs later, from a named government official describing why the system is slow.
- Read the survey for what it is. KRPIA represents research-based pharmaceutical companies in Korea and co-hosted the forum where its own findings were presented. That 74.7% back faster rare-disease listing is useful as public sentiment and is not independent evidence for a policy its sponsor wants.
- The staffing admission is the actual disclosure. A division director stating on the record that headcount has been static for several years, while the drug regulator secured an increase and his own division did not, identifies the constraint more precisely than 3,055 survey responses. Process reform without headcount reform reorders a queue rather than shortening it.
- The 23-month average understates oncology. Roche’s Tecentriq and Polivy each waited roughly 46 months from MFDS approval to reimbursement, reaching coverage this September. Anyone modelling Korean entry from the headline average should check it against the cases in their own therapy area.