PhRMA Japan reiterates view that NHI drug pricing impairs innovativeness

"Health care is an investment in the people of Japan, in their quality of life, their longevity, their productivity, and well-being. Regrettably, many of the recommendations of Chuikyo [the Japanese Central Social Insurance Council] were based on the view of health care as a cost, rather than an investment," Ko Sekiguchi, chairman of the Japan-based Executive Committee of the US trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and president of Janssen Pharmaceutical, and Ian Wolf, Japan representative of the PhRMA, said in a statement on the 2008 National Health Insurance drug pricing reform (Marketletters passim).

The PhRMA welcomed "The Five-year Strategy for the Creation of Innovative Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices," jointly originated by the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This aims to support innovation in medical science, eliminate the so-called, "drug lag," and bring these benefits to patients.

However, they strongly criticized an evaluation of the expansion of the premium rates for innovative drugs, and the proposal for excluding the use of comparator agents on the market for over 10 years for the purpose of setting the NHI prices.