NHI to expand coverage of PARP inhibitors to more cancer types

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Taiwan's health authority announced Monday that National Health Insurance (NHI) coverage will be expanded for poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors to include other types of cancer treatments, effective from June 1.

The expanded coverage will include patients with late-stage, highly malignant gynecologic cancers, early-stage breast cancer, and those receiving first-line treatment for prostate cancer, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said in a news release.

PARP inhibitors are a type of targeted therapy used in cancer treatment. They work by inhibiting PARP, an enzyme crucial for DNA repair, particularly in cancer cells with mutations.

Gynecologic and breast cancers rank among the top 10 most common cancers in Taiwanese women, while prostate cancer is among the top 3 for men, the NHIA said.

According to Huang Yu-wen (黃育文), director of the NHIA's Medical Review and Pharmaceutical Benefits Division, PARP inhibitors are currently covered under the NHI for patients with advanced ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer or primary peritoneal cancer with germline or somatic BRCA1/2 pathogenic mutations.

They will soon be available to patients who are homologous recombination deficiency-positive and have either pathogenic BRCA mutations or genomic instability, Huang said.

With the expanded coverage, two types of PARP inhibitors containing olaparib and niraparib have been approved for use in gynecologic cancers, she added.

An estimated 775 patients with those three cancer types are expected to immediately benefit from this expanded NHI coverage, which will take effect from June 1, the health official said.

Approximately NT$979 million (US$32.42 million) is to be allocated each year to subsidize those cancer treatments, Huang said.