It made its third attempt, but Ilaris faced another challenge. ‘Ilaris,’ a drug for about ten patients in South Korea, has not cleared the Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee (DREC) of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) and is on hold.

Novartis Korea’s Ilaris (canakinumab), a drug used to treat periodic fever syndromes (PFS), passed the review under condition by the DREC in February, causing anticipation. However, the ‘appropriateness of reimbursement’ decision was postponed after Novartis did not accommodate the additional documents requested by the government. Novartis requested that the government reconsider the requirements for submitting documentation.