Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis status and performance of the healthcare review committee for new drugs for MDR-TB in the Republic of Korea


Cho Kyung Sook, Kim Na Hyun
Division of TB＆HIV Control, Center for Disease Prevention, KCDC

In the Republic of Korea, tuberculosis (TB) incidence has decreased steadily and the decline has accelerated since 2012, although the incidence is the highest among OECD country members. However, the incidence of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) has remained steady for the last few years. The treatment success rate of MDR/RR-TB patients started on second-line treatment was 63% in 2016; it is lower than that of other developed countries, which have rates of 70–80%.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of the healthcare review committee for new drugs for MDR-TB between the 1st phase of the study (October 2016–April 2017) and the 2nd phase (May 2017–present). A chi-square test and t-test were conducted. The approval rate for the healthcare benefit of the 2nd phase was higher than that of the 1st phase. Furthermore, the average days for review in the 1st phase (5.1 days) was shorter than that of the 2nd phase (15.5 days) (p<.001). This study suggests that policy makers should focus their efforts on achieving a significant improvement in MDR-TB treatment and a reduction in MDR-TB incidence.

Keywords: Tuberculosis, Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, Healthcare review committee for new drugs for MDR-TB, Novel drugs, Incidence