title: The impact of South Korea's new drug-pricing policy on market competition among off-patent drugs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A new pricing policy was introduced in Korea in April 2012 with the aim of strengthening competition among off-patent drugs by eliminating price gaps between originators and generics.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Examine the effect of newly implemented pricing policy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospectively examining the effects through extracting from the National Health Insurance claims data a 30-month panel dataset (January 2011-June 2013) containing consumption data in four major therapeutic classes (antihypertensives, lipid-lowering drugs, antiulcerants and antidepressants). Proxies for market competition were examined before and after the policy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The new pricing policy did not enhance competition among off-patent drugs. In fact, price dispersion significantly decreased as opposed to the expected change. Originator-to-generic utilization increased 6.12 times (p = 0.000) after the new policy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The new pricing policy made no impact on competition among off-patent drugs. Competition in the off-patent market cannot be enhanced unless both supply and demand side measures are coordinated.
authors.affiliation: a 1 Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|b 2 Institute of Health and Environment, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hye-Young
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: c 3 National Health Insurance Service, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hyungmin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: d 4 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, SE-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden.|e 5 Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Godman
authors.affiliation: a 1 Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Reich
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D016527:Drug Costs / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000639:trends; D016568:Drugs, Generic / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004465:Economic Competition / Q000639:trends*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000191:economics; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D016568:Drugs, Generic; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Korea; competition; drug pricing; generic medicines; off-patent drugs