Japan's MHLW against elements of health care reform proposed by CRR

Japan's Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare has expressed its opposition to several proposition for health care system changes set out in an interim report made by the Japanese government's Council for the Regulatory Reform.

Although the Council pointed out that the Ministry's goal to eliminate the drug-lag - the time between drug approvals in other developed countries and that in Japan - by the end of fiscal-year 2011 will not be attained because the number of reviewers with expertise cannot be increased instantly due to the fact that it takes a long time to train such specialists, the Ministry argued that it is not difficult for it to reach this objective by the deadline.

Already recruiting more reviewers