Although it was well expected, the road to reimbursement extension for Keytruda is not going so smoothly. The company had applied to extend reimbursement for the drug to 13 additional indications in bulk earlier this year.

According to industry sources, 4 indications of MSD Korea’s PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, endometrial carcinoma, and bladder cancer were deliberated at the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service’s Cancer Disease Deliberation Committee on the 22nd but received a ‘rediscussion’ decision.

When adding this to the 3 indications - esophageal cancer, endometrial, and