In about nine years since its approval in South Korea, the orphan drug 'Ilaris' is heading toward reimbursement listing. Novartis’ continued effort has shined.

In February, Ilaris (canakinumab), a drug used to treat periodic fever syndromes (PFS), received a conditional pass decision from the Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee (DREC) of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA). Subsequently, it was redeliberated to the DREC review on April 4th, but it has received the same result.

Contrary to the last review, reducing the scope of the government’s requirement for post-marketing evidence submission was the main discussion. In February, Novartis did not accept the c