79. The Government, in Nos.263 and 264, gives a brief description on the AIDS
treatment drugs available in this country; on why some of them are not reimbursable
(for example, due to supply rejection by the manufacturers); and on the limited budget
for medical fee assistance.
80. As the new drugs manufactured by multinational pharmaceuticals are usually highpriced or sometimes are not available in this country, those living with HIV/AIDS in
Korea have a limited access to those new drugs. Within the framework of the NHI
system in which patients can get a reimbursement for a drug only when it is included in
the reimbursement list, it is not unusual that a drug manufacturer fails to reach
agreement on sales prices in the negotiation with the Government and so gives up
placing the drug on the reimbursement list or just refuses to supply the drug.
81. In particular, Roche had been withholding distribution of Fuzeon, an essential AIDS
drug for the patients who have developed resistance to existing antivirus medicine, for
four years on the ground that it couldn't settle for the sales price proposed by the
Government. The Government didn't anything to address this situation. Some raised a
need to enforce the distribution of the Roche-patent drug and filed an application for
forced supply of Fuzeon before the Korea Intellectual Property Office, but the
application was dismissed. At present, Roche is distributing Fuzeon free of charge, but
the HIV/AIDS patients' access to the drug is still very unstable.
82. Therefore, the Government should take proactive measures, including forced supply
of drugs, to ensure that the drugs which have not been in distribution within the country
by the reason of no agreement on sales prices are made available to the domestic
HIV/AIDS patients. In addition, it needs to work out specific subsidy programs to
ensure that essential medical substances are offered to the patients at affordable prices
on a temporary basis when an agreement on sales prices is not negotiated.
3.
Lack of the Solutions to the Problems of Artificial Abortion (268-272)
83. In Korea, as artificial abortion is prohibited by law, it is difficult to get a clear
picture on the exact status and scale of artificial abortion operations. The Research on
and Comprehensive Setup of Countermeasure against Artificial Abortions published by
the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2005 shows that approximately 350,000 artificial
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