Yuhan to offer lung cancer drug for free

Yuhan's lung cancer drug Leclaza [YUHAN]

Pharma firm Yuhan will supply its domestically-developed lung cancer drug Leclaza for free until it is covered by national health insurance in Korea.

Yuhan’s Leclaza was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on June 30 for first-line chemotherapy, after the regulator gave the green light for the medication for second-line treatment in 2021.

Under the early access program, which allows the medication to be provided to patients before it becomes eligible for insurance coverage, Yuhan will accept applications from secondary and tertiary medical facilities and temporarily offer free supplies of its Leclaza to an unlimited number of patients.

It is the first case of a domestically-developed medication being included in such an early access program without any limitations on the number of recipients.

“To prevent the patients who are suffering from lung cancer to be further weighed down by the financial burden from the treatment, we will give back our profits to a social cause with the free supply of the medication,” said Yuhan CEO Cho Wook-je during the press conference Monday.

Leclaza costs around 200,000 won ($155) a day, similar to other regular lung cancer treatments, which equates to over 70 million won if prescribed for a year.

Cho forecasts that Leclaza will be eligible for national health insurance coverage from the first quarter of next year.

Yuhan said it is also developing 10 new candidate drugs aside from Leclaza, including a novel candidate drug for breast and stomach cancer named YH32367.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]