Access and innovation in Japan

Regulatory reforms have paved the way for innovative therapies to launch in Japan before anywhere else in the world. This should result in earlier access to more innovative medicines than ever before - but only if policies on drug pricing can catch up.

As the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) rushes to implement across-the-board pricing reforms by the start of FY18 next April 1, it has the opportunity to devise a value-based system for breakthrough therapies whose early but limited data make them ripe for novel pricing approaches...