Easy cuts, easy rebound: Drug expenditures with massive price cuts in Korea

•Price cuts are known as a practical tool for cost-containment of pharmaceuticals.•Drastic price cuts have been introduced since 2012 in Korea.•The impact of price-cuts was transient and unsustainable without demand-side measures.•Both demand- and supply-side measures should be balanced for effective cost-containment. Since 2012, the Korean government has introduced 46.5% price cut for off-patent medicines in order to reign everescalating drug expenditure. This study sought to appraise the impact of the price cut measure (in the context of Korean National Health Insurance system). We employed Korean National Health Insurance database from January 2007 until December 2016 for 120 month period. An interrupted time series analysis with segmented regression analysis was conducted to estimate the impact of price cut on overall drug spending. Drug spending significantly dropped with the price cut by 186.22 billlion Korean Won (KRW) (p