Abstract
This study aims to assess the aggregate contribution of new drugs to the increase in life expectancy. We constructed a panel data combining mortality data in KOSIS and a drug dataset generated by assigning new drugs listed in 2000~2009 to their respective ICD codes. We found that 10% increase in stock of new drug led to 0.13~0.27% increase in the probability of survival to age 65. Due to lack of disease-specific life table, we used indirect approach to estimate the effect of new drugs on longevity. Using ordinary least squares, the estimate of the probability of survival to age 65 (logarithm) on life expectancy for all ages was 24.92. In conclusion, the increase in life expectancy of the entire population in Korea between 2000 and 2009 resulting from NMEs is 1.95 years, which explains 46.6% of real increase in life expectancy.