Starting tomorrow, National Health Insurance will be applied, in effect for the first time, to a combination therapy using new drugs developed by different pharmaceutical companies.

The target of this coverage is the combination therapy of "Padcev" and "Keytruda," which are treatments for urothelial cancer.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that the plan to expand health insurance coverage containing these measures was deliberated and resolved by the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee.

Health insurance will now apply to the first-line combination therapy of the new treatment Padcev and the existing drug Keytruda for urothelial cancer, a neglected cancer type that accounts for about 2.5 percent of all cancer occurrences.

Because urothelial cancer progresses faster than other types of cancer, initial response is crucial. However, there was a restriction where the existing drug Keytruda was only covered by health insurance for second-line treatment after first-line treatment failure.

Through this measure, urothelial cancer patients will be able to use Keytruda from the initial treatment stage and receive health insurance coverage even for combination treatment with the new drug Padcev.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, "This holds significance as practically the first case where health insurance has been applied to a combination therapy using new drugs patented by different pharmaceutical companies." The ministry added, "Despite the regulatory requirement for individual negotiations between the health authorities and each pharmaceutical company, and differing interests among the drugmakers, a compromise was reached under the grand objective of resolving blind spots in the treatment of rare and severe diseases."

Building on this precedent, the government plans to pursue institutional improvements to further expand health insurance coverage for combination therapies involving different new drugs in the future.