TTY Biopharm’s (4105:TW) anticancer agent S-1 Capsule received a Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) reimbursement for adjuvant chemotherapy of locally-advanced gastric cancer [stage II (excluding T1), IIIA or IIIB in TNM system], after the review from Pharmaceutical Benefit and Reimbursement Scheme Joint committee (PBRS). The validated date was December 1st, 2016. This was the second reimbursement indication after S-1 Capsule had received its first reimbursement for locally advanced un-resectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer patient since June, 2014. S-1 Capsule had been developed by Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. of Japan and TTY Biopharm received an exclusive right to develop and market in Taiwan.
According to Ministry of Health and Welfare’s database, around 3,600 to 3,800 new patients were diagnosed with gastric cancer annually. Gastric cancer was ranked the 7th in cancer incidence and 5th in mortality. For the early stage gastric cancer, the primary treatment was surgery; however, about 40% of patients who were diagnosed with stage II and III gastric cancer after surgery would still relapse and nearly 90% of the relapsed cases happened within 3 years. Unfortunately, for those relapsed patients, the median survival rate was less than 10%. The clinical practice recommended chemotherapy to be an adjuvant therapy. S-1 Capsule, after publication of a large-scale randomized Phase III clinical trial, was approved to be the first agent to decrease the risk of death by 33.1% and risk of relapse by 34.7% for stage II (excluding T1)-III gastric cancer patients. It was also the only oral chemotherapy agent with TFDA and NHI reimbursement label in Stage II-IIIB gastric cancer. Clinical results were first published on the New England Journal of Medicine and the final result was published on Journal of Clinical Oncology.
TTY Biopharm indicated: “Although the number of patients with gastric cancer has slowed down, the overall survival rate is lower than other Asian countries, Japan and South Korea for example. We keep not only reminding citizens to receive regular upper gastrointestinal examinations, but also educating public the benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy for lowering the risk of relapse and increasing chances of being cured.” S-1 Capsule is expected to allow patients to maintain original lives. With reimbursement for gastric cancer patients, about 1,200 patients would be benefitted.

About TTY Biopharm Company Limited
TTY Biopharm Co., Ltd. was founded in 1960. In the past 50 years, TTY Biopharm from a manufacturing and sales-oriented traditional generic pharmaceutical companies, has grown to be a developing and sales/marketing oriented branding generic company; with continuous self-innovation, transformation, accumulated knowledge, technology and networked relationships, TTY Biopharm now strives to re-position itself as a biotechnology pharmaceutical company, focusing on developing special formulations and new drugs, and devoting to improve “the quality of life with technology and the industry status of Chinese life in the world.”

TS-1 website: http://www.ts1.com.tw/ts-1_com/index.asp
TTY Biopharm website: http://www.tty.com.tw/en-us/