Japan Drug Price Reforms Risk Hurting Investment: Bristol-Myers CEO

Japan’s “overly restrictive” drug pricing policies risk diverting foreign direct investment to China and other markets, the chief executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb said on Thursday.

The Japanese government made reforms in 2018 that change how its national health system pays for new and innovative drugs.

But those changes are not science-based and favor large domestic drugmakers over foreign and smaller players, Giovanni Caforio told a news conference in Tokyo.

“The world is very competitive, and countries such as China have made it a priority to develop a biopharmaceutical innovation-focused industry,” Caforio said at an event organized by the Japan office of PhRMA, the main U.S. drugmaker lobby.

Caforio was announced as chairman of PhRMA last month.

Japan is the world’s second-largest market for innovative drugs such as gene-based therapies and cutting-edge cancer drugs. As a wealthy country with one of the fastest ageing societies, it remains an attractive market for global pharmaceutical makers.

Japan is also a major center for pharma research, producing drugs such as Opdivo, a blockbuster cancer drug licensed globally by Bristol-Myers.

The rules announced last year evaluate drugs and their makers for innovation to determine how much the government will pay for treatments.

“These decisions could impact whether the strong investment patterns in Japan continue and whether new medicines are rapidly available for Japanese patients in the future,” he said. – Reuters