Japan, long a profit country for multinational pharmaceutical companies, will also fight the high drug price and the goverment (who a key role on prices covering about 40 percent of the country’s health spending via its national insurance scheme) announced plans to review drug prices more frequently: annually for all therapies and quarterly for the newest and most expensive ones that are used widely.
As in the last months government cut price of Bristol-Myers, Ono cancer drug (Opdivo) by 50%, the industry fears that could just be the beginning and for local and international companies, which have long seen Japan as a source of steady profits, the new price cuts are a blow.
The government is preparing to assess the price levels of seven drugs for the next round next year. Gilead’s Sovaldi and Ono and Bristol-Myers Opdivo are among the drugs selected for another round of reviews and could potentially face even more reductions.
