Prices of more than 5,400 medications to become cheaper in April

Prices of more than 5,400 medications to become cheaper in April

2023-03-03

Recently, the National Health Insurance Administration announced that more than 5,400 medications will become cheaper in April. The biggest price drop will be for Ebixa, a brand-name drug used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. With a price cut of 30%, reports have emerged that the drug’s manufacturer may pull out of Taiwan. The NHIA on Friday clarified that the medication would still be available in Taiwan, adding that other pharma companies are producing identical medication, although it wouldn’t be with the moniker Ebixa.

These medicines on the counter include several treatments to lower blood pressure. They are all in a NHIA list of 5,000 medicines that will soon have lower prices. The biggest price drop will be for heart medications, which will see prices fall by about 9%. The second biggest cut is for medicines for the nervous system.

Shen Tsai-ying
Pharmacist
They have their value, and many patients take these medicines. If you cut their prices and they stop getting produced, you’d end up having to switch to a more expensive drug. And that would not save the NHI system any money.

One of the medications set to become cheaper is this medication for Alzheimer’s disease: Ebixa film-coated tablets, which are produced by a Danish company. Their price will go down from NT$8.9 per tablet to NT$6.3, a drop of nearly 30% and the biggest cut of all. Reports say the manufacturer has threatened to pull out of the Taiwan market due to the price drop.

Voice of Chen Jui-hsing
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital
Patients with moderate to severe symptoms all take Ebixa. There is no way to tell how well the Taiwan-made drugs will do, because there is no way to do an assessment.

Hung Tzu-jen
Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital
The manufacturer may think that the cost of production will be higher than the price after the cut. I suggest that they provide a cost analysis to the NHIA to reverse the decision.

The NHIA says Ebixa has been offered in the system for more than 15 years, and its patent has already expired. That’s why its price will be lowered to match the price of generics with the same ingredients, quantity and format.

Voice of Huang Yu-wen
National Health Immigration Agency
Ebixa will stay. And there are medicines from five other makers with stable production.

Ebixa’s agent in Taiwan for its part says it will discuss the matter with the NHIA.

砍阿茲海默藥價"傳藥廠退出台灣" 健保署急澄清

2023-03-03

健保署日前公布調整藥價給付，超過5400項調降，其中被砍最多的是治療阿茲海默症的"憶必佳膜衣錠"，降幅近三成，傳出藥廠揚言退出台灣。不過健保署澄清，憶必佳會續留在台灣，還有其他五個品牌產能穩定，不會影響臨床用藥。

藥品一字排開，包含不少降血壓藥，都在健保署的價格調整名單中，這次共調降5千多項藥品，心臟血管用藥降幅最多，近9%，其次是神經系統用藥。

[[藥師沈采穎]]
“它有它存在的價值，而且是有蠻多病人在吃。你把它砍，其實有時候要換比較高價的藥，去替代這個廉價的藥，健保支出其實並沒有節省。”

砍價名單中，用於治療阿茲海默症的一款丹麥原廠藥"憶必佳膜衣錠"，最受關注。從一顆要價8.9元，降為6.3元，降幅近三成，砍價最多，傳出藥廠不滿砍價，揚言退出台灣市場。

[[聲源:亞東醫院失智中心主任甄瑞興]]
“病人只要是中重度都會使用憶必佳。用台廠藥效果怎麼樣無法得知，因為你沒辦法去評估它。”

[[新光醫院副院長洪子仁]]
“藥廠覺得是說它的生產成本，事實上已經高出來這次降下來藥價。我建議能夠提出它的成本架構，以及它的成本分析表，向健保來作申覆。”

不過健保署也說明，因為憶必佳收在健保，已經超過十五年而且過了專利期，加上有學名藥可取代，才把同成分、含量、劑型的藥物調成相同價格。

[[聲源:健保署醫審及藥材組長黃育文]]
“憶必佳它會繼續留下來，還有5款品牌其實產能也都很穩定。”

憶必佳的台灣代理商則表示，會和健保署申請重新核價。

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The Biden administration on Thursday announced its ninth arms sale to Taiwan. The US$619 million deal included missiles and equipment related to F-16 jets. Predictably this provoked a furious outburst from China, which demanded an end to American military sales to Taiwan. U.S. security officials said the sale was in line with its Taiwan Relations Act, adding that the U.S. would continue to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities. That is to ensure China understands that there is a high price in attacking Taiwan, to prevent an attack before 2030.

The U.S. Biden administration on Thursday announced its ninth arms sale to Taiwan in the form of about NT$18.9 billion of 300 missiles that can be mounted on F-16V fighter jets. This included 200 “AIM-120C-8” advanced medium range air-to-air missiles with an effective range of 160 kilometers, and 100 “AGM-88B” high speed anti-radiation missiles, designed to hone in on electronic transmissions coming from surface-to-air radar systems.

Sun Li-fang
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The two types of missiles that the U.S. agreed to sell us this time are all types of munitions that the air force has already completed combat capabilities for, and some functions have been strengthened and upgraded.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
This also symbolizes the importance that the U.S. attaches to Taiwan’s national defense and mutual trust in security matters. These two types of highly sensitive precision ammunition were permitted to be sold to Taiwan.

Not surprisingly, this caused China to lash out.

Mao Ning
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman
We urge the U.S. to stop selling arms to Taiwan and end U.S.-Taiwan military ties, and stop creating tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

John Kirby
US national security council spokesperson
We want to do that, that’s part of our support for the Taiwan Relations Act. There’s no reason for tensions over the strait there to devolve into conflict. We stay committed to making sure that Taiwan has sufficient self defense capabilities that they need

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby hit back by stressing that the arms sales were in accordance with U.S. policy. After all, the U.S. has significant concerns about China’s continuous efforts to undermine regional peace and stability.

Ely Ratner
US assistant secretary of defense
We are seeing a PLA that is growing more capable, but, as you describe, growing also more willing to take risks, more willing to use the military instrument of power in a way that we haven’t seen before in previous years.

Ely Ratner, the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, stressed that the U.S. will continue to strengthen Taiwan’s deterrence to ensure China does not dare to invade Taiwan before 2030.

Ely Ratner
US assistant secretary of defense
It’s not going to be easy. The challenge is enormous, the capabilities are growing, the ambition is there, we know that, but what we’re doing is reinforcing that deterrence, ensuring that the cost of aggression remains unacceptably high to Beijing and I think we have the pathway to do that.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently published a Message to the Force, which mentions that as the Chinese threat gradually increases and it deliberately attempts to change the international order, the U.S. will strengthen cooperation with its allies in the Indo-Pacific and continue to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities.

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Controversy erupts over proposed revisions to national mobilization act

The Executive Yuan has decided to suspend proposed revisions to Taiwan’s national mobilization act. That’s after KMT lawmakers threatened to block them in the legislature over concerns about media freedom and suspicions that young people could be mobilized during wartime. Premier Chen Chien-jen said he would instruct the military to step up its communications with society, and clarified that there had never been talk of students going to the battlefield, manufacturing weapons or a media clampdown. Opposition politicians are continuing with their criticisms, except for the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, which says Taiwan cannot afford to be idle amid China’s threats.

Proposed revisions to the All-out Defense Mobilization Readiness Act have been branded by critics as sending kids off to war at the age of 16 and clamping down on the free press. As controversies intensify, even though the government has promised to suspend deliberations, the Taiwan’s People Party is still continuing to lambast the Tsai Ing-wen administration.

Chiu Chen-yuan
TPP legislative caucus whip
Youth mobilization involves schools, universities and colleges being required to draw up name lists for youths to be mobilized, and even the education ministry has admitted it has been under unprecedented pressure. The government’s powers to do whatever it wants to about media censorship are far too large, we had similar doubts about a previous proposal regarding the NCC. The provisions giving authority to the military don’t stipulate if this occurs in peacetime or war time. This causes suspicions that military control is being covertly becoming part of government operations, which is similar to martial law.

Chang Po-yang
Kaohsiung City councilor (TSP)
Because our views on the national mobilization act were influenced by cognitive warfare, the government immediately abandoned this issue, and tried to calm things down, and even delayed revisions to the act. Later on if we have other laws relating to wartime mobilizations and emergency decrees, if the government abandons this debate every time we’ve been swayed by fake news, then, at the end of the day, if an emergency erupts, we can say that we in Taiwan are not prepared at all.

The TPP is criticizing the revisions, the Taiwan State Building Party supports them, and the KMT is attacking them day by day. A DPP lawmaker called on opposition politicians to stop all the tongue lashings and smears.

Ker Chien-ming
DPP legislative caucus whip
This is an issue relating to national security. I don’t want opposition parties stigmatizing this so that many people feel this is problematic. First, all these suspicions should be cleared up and everything should be explained. Second, the new laws themselves are still in the drafting stages with the Ministry of National Defense, and they haven’t even reached the stage where they are sent to Cabinet. We as a nation are one and national security belongs to everyone. Sometimes attacks and smears should stop before we all get carried away. Everyone needs to clarify things so that people don’t panic.

Chen Chien-jen
Premier
In particular, we’ve requested the Ministry of National Defense to communicate more with people of all walks of life in society so everyone can understand the importance of the national mobilization act, and we will solicit everyone’s opinions to make the best possible amendments to the law. We absolutely won’t be requiring students to go to war, nor require students to make weapons. And there will be no clampdowns on the press.

Premier Chen has asked the Ministry of National Defense to strengthen communications with the public. He says he will clear up all the controversies, hoping to reduce suspicions in society generally.

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Employee tensions over management culture at TSMC US fab: New York Times report

Reports claim that tensions are growing at the new TSMC chip manufacturing facility in the U.S. Employees at the fab in Arizona are dissatisfied with the managerial style of the Taiwanese chip giant, claims a report from the New York Times. The news has sparked debate about the viability of replicating East Asian tech industry norms in Western countries. Youtuber Wen Rui has linked the issue with Samsung’s growing pains when it expanded into the U.S. And others are pointing to the link between Taiwan’s silicon industry and increasingly robust support for Taiwan in the U.S.

TSMC has opened its new fab in Arizona. But U.S. employees are questioning the Taiwanese management culture in their new workplace. Even the New York Times has published a report on what it calls “rising doubts.” And YouTuber Wen Rui has commented, based on his experience working for Samsung. He says that Korean tech giants also went through culture shock when expanding into U.S. labor markets. He believes that TSMC has a successful operating model in Taiwan, and it could succeed in the U.S. too – but not without great difficulty.

Wen Rui
YouTuber
The whole success of the chip industry in Taiwan cannot be replicated. It has set the scope for a complete chip production chain, including low production costs. High-end chips will continue to be made in Taiwan. The U.S. must make a “compulsory action,” to protect Taiwan.

Wen Rui says the U.S. has realized the importance of Taiwan’s silicon industry. That’s one reason why, according to the Wall Street Journal, more U.S. troops are being stationed in Taiwan. Meanwhile, silicon industry consultant Chai Huan-hsin says: although TSMC technology is one step ahead of the competition now, it can’t get complacent.

Chai Huan-hsin
Photonics Industry Association
Engineers in Taiwan and South Korea have certainly been working flat out and busting a gut to stay ahead of the game. That’s why TSMC and also Samsung have been able to overtake Intel on advanced manufacturing processes in the last few years. But that doesn’t mean Intel is out of the game.

Industry experts say TSMC’s new venture in the U.S. highlights its weak international management skills.

Chai Huan-hsin
Photonics Industry Association
I wonder if Taiwanese engineers won’t be quite easily headhunted by Intel, or other semiconductor manufacturers, when their contracts expire. TSMC needs to think deeply about the bigger picture, to be fair to both U.S. and Taiwanese engineers.

It seems that TSMC’s workplace norms are not easily transplanted to the U.S. If the chip giant wants to make inroads in the West, it may need to be willing to remodel more than just silicon.

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Dentist moves to seaside town in Taitung for love, in real-life version of a rom-com

And now, we have a real-life K-drama to report. The plot of the rom-com “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” has played out for real in Taitung. Accomplished doctor Yang Ching was forging a stellar career in the busy world of Northern Taiwan. When she went on a brief holiday in the far south of the country, she didn’t expect to meet a man who would change her life forever. Now she’s working at a rural branch of Taitung Hospital, in a little seaside town, which has never had its own dentist before.

A dentist gives a patient a check-up. This is Yang Ching, who after 10 years of dentistry in Northern Taiwan has taken the unlikely move to work at Taitung Hospital’s Chenggong Branch, far from where she grew up. And why? Well, you can guess if you’ve watched the K-drama “Hometown Cha-cha-cha.”

Yang Ching
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My friend took me on holiday in Kenting. And it so happened that my now-husband and his sister were running a hostel there… And that’s how we met.

Yang’s future husband often made the long trip from Kenting to the north while they were dating. He would quietly sweep her apartment before going home, a thoughtful act that won her heart, she says.

The couple married, and Yang’s husband wanted to move back to his hometown to enter the shrimping industry. Yang decided – perhaps against the odds – to go with him, and set up her dental practice in Chenggong Township. The locals welcomed her with open arms.

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It’s more convenient. It means I don’t have to go as far as Taitung City to see a dentist.

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I sometimes get toothache, and it’s really horrible. Now, with Dr. Yang here, it’s very convenient for us on the East Coast.

Before she came, there were just three weekly dental appointments available in Chenggong. If patients had a dental emergency, they had to go to Taitung City or Hualien’s Yuli Township. Just the travel is at least a three-hour round-trip.

Yang Ching
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I think the landscape is beautiful round here – the mountains, the ocean. When I first properly moved here, I was a bit surprised at how early the streets become deserted in the evenings. But I’m not afraid of it.

For the residents of Chenggong, Yan’s presence is a real boon. As the first dentist ever to be based in the town, she wants to use her expertise to help enhance everyone’s dental health.

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December, January and February were coldest three months in five years: meteorologist

If you feel that these past few months have been particularly chilly, you are not wrong. A meteorologist recently said in a post on social media that the past three months from December to February have been coldest period during the past five years. Temperatures in Taipei dropped below 14 degrees on 32 days, and the average temperature was just 17 degrees. Over in the south, the three months delivered very little rain, raising water shortage alerts in many places. The Central Weather Bureau says the dry spell won’t end for at least another week.

The sun sits up high in the sky. But at ground level, radiative cooling is keeping things chilly, with a low of 7.4 degrees in Hsinchu’s Emei Township. According to a meteorologist, these past three months from December to the end of February have been the coldest of the past five years. Taipei saw 32 days with temperatures below 14 degrees, just two fewer days than the same period starting on December 2017. The average temperature in Taipei was 17 degrees, also the lowest average in five years.

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From December to February, the average temperature at the Taipei weather station was lower than the same months from December 2018 to Feb 2022. The last time temperatures were so low was the three-month period from December 2017 to February 2018.

While it’s been cold in the north, the south has been experiencing water shortages. The Central Weather Bureau says it will be some time until rains hit the area again.

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The CWB says the first third of the month will be rather dry. And with temperatures beginning to climb back up, the south’s water shortages are set to continue. Locals only hope the plum rain season will come earlier than usual this year.

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