Dramatic increase in use of generic drugs in Japan confirmed

A subcommittee of Japan’s Central Social Insurance Medical Council (CSIMC) looked at the effect of April 2012 revision to the Medical Fee System, resulting in evidence of greater use of generic medicines, reports The Pharma Letter’s local analyst.

The subcommittee verified that ratio of generic drugs of all the dispensed medicines increased from 24% in 2011 to nearly 30% by August 2012. The gain of 6 percentage points in volume share was a result of the government’s policy to promote generics, concluded the CSIMC.

As of April last year, the government changed the prescription format so as to increase the burden for medical doctors who wanted to fend off generics. After the change, doctors now have to mark with their signature check boxes of each prescribed medicines when they want to refuse generic substitution by pharmacies.