Japan's Chuikyo OKs 2008 NHI price reform

Japan's Chuikyo (the Central Social Insurance Medical Council) has formally approved a change to the prescription format (in principle) and an increase in the premium rate for innovativeness, usefulness, pediatric use and orphan status under the National Health Insurance drug pricing system. It also agreed the extension of the applicable scope for targeted drugs for recalculation of the NHI price because of the market's expansion, in line with the November decision of its expert committee on NHI pricing(Marketletter December 3).

However, the Council decided to relax some measures on the expansion of applicable scope for targeted drugs for recalculation of the NHI drug price because the new proposal may have a great impact on sales of these, reports the Marketletter's Tokyo correspondent.

Price cuts of 6%-8% upon the arrival of generics