Posted by Michael Wonder on 22 Sep 2016
Japan weighs further clampdown on drug pricing, with Opdivo and Repatha in its sights
21 September 2016 - Japan is urgently looking for ways to alleviate the strain that rising drug prices place on its healthcare budget.
With forced price cuts for brands such as Gilead's hepatitis C medicine Sovaldi already under its belt, the government is reportedly weighing annual price revisions - with cuts to BMS' Opdivo and Amgen's cholesterol medicine Repatha on tap for 2017.
Pharma industry groups are fighting back, however, saying that limiting sales potential could dampen drugmakers' interest in the market and reverse recent advances in the availability of new meds.
Just released figures from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare show that overall spending on medicines rose 9.4% to approximately $77 billion in fiscal 2015-16, driven by a 250% increase in spending on antiviral therapies to around $4 billion. Hepatitis C virus treatments such as Gilead's Sovaldi and Harvoni were key drivers of that spending increase, says the Nikkei Asian Review.
