Japan's MHLW to expand program on educating patients on cost of branded drugs
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) plans to expand a program to notify patients of their excess cost paid for using branded drugs. In the budget request for the 2014 fiscal year, the Ministry added a new item to subsidize health insurance payers that introduce the program, reports The Pharma Letter’s local analyst.
Half of the introductory cost would be borne by the MHLW. Although the budget is small at 1.50 billion yen ($15.2 million) next year, this seems to be the first of drastic steps to create a system similar to the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) in the USA, he notes
The MHLW had guided health insurance funds to notify patients of generic alternatives when they used higher-priced branded drugs. Some of the municipal health insurance funds had already been subsidized and started to send the “Notification of Difference” to their patients.
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