Japan’s Cabinet Office is requesting 22 billion yen (about 143 million USD) in its FY2027 budget to help pay for clinical trials, as part of a wider push to invest in drug discovery and advanced medicine. All of the money will go to a new global R&D support program for treatments for intractable and rare diseases. The program builds on an existing subsidy scheme for startups but will be treated as a separate new initiative. Its main aim is to bring drug and regenerative medicine development to Japan, in part by helping overseas startups cover the cost of running trials there.
Separately, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has submitted its own FY2027 budget request. It presents the health sector as an engine of economic growth, not only a social security expense. Its three main themes are advancing the life sciences, digitalizing healthcare (“medical DX”), and securing the future of healthcare in Japan.
For pharmaceuticals, the MHLW wants to build a stronger life-sciences base from early discovery to manufacturing. Planned support covers startups, multinational clinical trials, the use of AI in both research and regulatory reviews, biologic production, regenerative therapies and next-generation devices. Citing the US Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) drug pricing policy referenced in the government’s Basic Policy 2026, the MHLW says it wants new drugs to keep reaching Japanese patients. It also calls for more domestic manufacturing of medicines considered essential to a stable supply.
On the digital side, the MHLW plans to move hospital medical records to the cloud, build a national health-data platform, strengthen cybersecurity, as well as expand the use of AI.
Written by: Ames Gross – President and Founder, Pacific Bridge Medical (PBM)
Mr. Gross founded PBM in 1988 and has helped hundreds of medical companies with regulatory and business development issues in Asia. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the Asian medical markets. Mr. Gross has a BA degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.