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 The Japanese government made reforms in 2018 that change how its
national health system pays for new and innovative drugs.
But those changes are not science-based and favor large domestic
drugmakers over foreign and smaller players, Giovanni Caforio told a
news conference in Tokyo.
"The world is very competitive, and countries such as China have
made it a priority to develop a biopharmaceutical innovation-focused
industry," Caforio said at an event organized by the Japan office of
PhRMA, the main U.S. drugmaker lobby.
Caforio was announced as chairman of PhRMA last month.
Japan's government is seeking ways to squeeze savings from its
national health care system as the population ages. The number of
working-age people in Japan compared to those over the age of 65 is
1.8, the lowest in the world, according to a 2019 United Nations
report.
Japan is the world's second-largest market for innovative drugs such
as gene-based therapies and cutting-edge cancer drugs. As a wealthy
country with one of the fastest ageing societies, it remains an
attractive market for global pharmaceutical makers.
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Japan is also a major center for pharma research, producing drugs
such as Opdivo, a blockbuster cancer drug licensed globally by
Bristol-Myers.
The rules announced last year evaluate drugs and their makers for
innovation to determine how much the government will pay for
treatments.
The rules would also subject drugs to annual reviews starting from
2021, as opposed to biannual reviews now. Caforio said he met with
senior government officials to press for more discussion on the
regulations.
"These decisions could impact whether the strong investment patterns
in Japan continue and whether new medicines are rapidly available
for Japanese patients in the future," he said.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by David Dolan)
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