An anticancer drug that targets the PIK3CA gene will once again attempt reimbursement listing in Korea.

According to industry sources, Novartis Korea submitted a reimbursement application for the reimbursement of its breast cancer treatment Piqray (alpelisib) recently. The drug was unable to pass deliberations by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service’s Cancer Disease Deliberation Committee in February this year.

Piqray, which was approved in Korea in May last year, is a 'PIK3Caα-inhibitor that blocks the overactivation of the PI3K enzyme which, when overactivated because of a mutation in the PIK3CA gene, stimulates cancer cells to divide and grow in an uncontrolled fashio