National Health Insurance Drug Price

Prescription drugs are listed on the National Health Insurance Drug Price List in order to be reimbursed... 

Of all the new drug applications approved by the FDA between 1989 and 2000, by the estimate of the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM), only one-third contained new active ingredients that could—even by a generous description—be considered innovative. (The pharmaceutical industry challeges the objectivity of the NIHCM, a nonprofit foundation, because it is heavily funded by the insurance industry, which has a natural bias toward low drug prices.)... 

Under the universal health insurance found in other industrialized nations, the demand for drugs is not much affected by the price charged. Nevertheless, the utilization of specific chugs and the prices paid tend to be more strictly controlled by the insurers. To a greater or lesser extent, dmg... 

In countries, such as some of the member states of the European Community, where social health insurance funds are the largest purchasers of drugs, national reference pricing can have a considerable effect on corporate strategies for R D and on marketing policies. 

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