Systematic evaluations of the effects of health technologies in Japan, China, and South Korea conducted over the past three years are showing success in determining the clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of widely used drugs, adjusting pricing of drugs and medical devices and... Read More
Less than two years after China first began to prioritize the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, the government is ordering hospitals to gather copious data on cases in a bid to promote their diagnosis and treatment. The notification in November 2019... Read More
One year after Japan tightened its drug pricing system in a bid to make cutting-edge treatments more affordable, the restrictions threaten to slow drug sales to the country, a pharmaceutical industry leader warned last month. Under the new policy, announced in 2018,... Read More
Spending on cancer drugs is dominating health spending in China, with hospitals in 2018 purchasing more cancer and immunomodulatory drugs than anti-infective drugs for the first time ever. According to data from the China Pharmaceutical Association (CPA), anti-tumor and immunomodulatory treatments represented... Read More
Moving to make it easier for innovative drug therapies to enter the Chinese market, the country’s National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) announced in August 2019 it will make 148 new drugs eligible for insurance reimbursement. Altogether, patients will be able to seek... Read More
Six months after Collategene became the first gene therapeutic drug cleared for use in Japan, the country’s health insurance system announced in September 2019 it would be placed on the list of pharmaceuticals approved for coverage. The drug, which introduces genes that... Read More
Determined to reduce prices of syringes, needles, sutures, staples, packaging, tubing, catheters, medical gloves, and other heavily used medical consumables, Chinese authorities in July unveiled a series of new cost-containment measures. The moves include a pilot program that would permit groups of... Read More
Moving to centralize decision-making on drug reimbursement practices, China’s National Healthcare Security Administration has drafted a plan to decrease the ability of provincial governments to make adjustments to the prices of pharmaceuticals. The agency, which since its formation last November has played... Read More
Japan’s health ministry will conduct a survey to evaluate drug pricing in advance of the regular biennial pharmaceutical price revision slated for April 2020. The decision to conduct the survey was solidified in June, when the Central Social Insurance Medical Council, commonly referred... Read More
A cutting edge cancer therapy from Swiss pharmaceutical maker Novartis that genetically modifies a patient’s own immune cells to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia is now covered by Japan’s national health insurance system. The drug, Kymriah, is more expensive than any other cancer... Read More