Japan's drug pricing reform will trigger industry reorganization, claims FPMAJ chief; Pharma R&D spend

The Japanese National Health Insurance pricing reform that is due to take effect in April will trigger major reform in the pharmaceutical industry, predicted Toichi Takenaka, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations of Japan and chairman of Astellas Pharma.

'The premium for the development of new off-label drug use will favor strong companies that can develop significant new drugs, but the 2.2% price cut for long-listed drugs will be a hard blow to companies that heavily depend on these drugs,' he said, reported by Pharma Japan. In this respect, he suggested, companies will try to get together to integrate their businesses to streamline their operations, rather than just make acquisitions in order to survive.

Mr Takenaka explained that the FPMAJ has long been stressing than an across-the-board 2% drug price cut for long-listed products is the maximum that the industry can bear, but the proposed reduction has now been raised to 2.2%. Moreover, he stated, the premium proposed by the Korosho (the Council for Promoting Drug Industry Policies of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) was cut to 20% (The Pharma Letter January 11).