Japanese Wholesaler Consolidation - The Reality

Many pharmaceutical company executives are convinced nothing changes inJapan, writes local industry expert P Reed Maurer. Same old delays on product approvals, price reductions, bizarre promotional practices, barriers to distribution, etc, etc.

They are fed up with the mythology, the trite phrases which begin: "Japan is different." They are tired of plans for Japan that assume Japan is changing, or harmonizing, or ready to accept western business practices. When so much is going on in countries they do understand, it is convenient to avoid the reality of change in Japan's drug market.

Japanese drug distribution has changed gradually for 25 years but is now undergoing a cycle of change which evolutionary biologists would call a punctuated equilibrium. For foreign firms, distribution is the last frontier to a fully-integrated presence in Japan. It is a black hole for many, but neglect is costly in terms of lost margins and forfeit of customer contact.