Call For Japan To Drop New Drug Pricing Scheme

In two days of talks earlier this month between officials, USrepresentatives urged Japan to give up its plans to introduce a reference drug pricing system for new medicines (Marketletters passim), claiming that this would obstruct American products' entry into that market.

In a separate move, research-based pharmaceutical companies, while applauding Japanese moves to restructure the health care system, also slammed the drug reference price proposals.

A joint statement from the Tokyo office of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Subcommittee of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan and the Pharmaceutical Committee of the European Business Community agrees to the basic idea of the Ruling Coalition Committee that the present National Health Insurance price system has to be abolished in order to eliminate yakkasa (the differential between the wholesale and reimbursement price) and that the determination of prices of pharmaceuticals should be entrusted to market forces.