A rare anti-cancer drug targeting a very small number of patients, Welireg, has been prescribed in Korea.

According to industry sources, the prescription code for MSD Korea’s oral hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor, ‘Welireg (belzutifan),’ has been registered at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. Currently, SMC is the only hospital that has the drug code inserted for Welireg’s prescription in Korea, and the first patient was prescribed the drug in December last year.

Welireg was designated as an orphan drug in January for the treatment of Von Hippel-Lindau disease and was officially approved in May. Specifically, the drug is indicated for the treatment of adult pa