The Japanese pharmaceutical market, which is the third-largest pharma marketplace, is undergoing its most sweeping structural reform in recent years. Some forces such as pricing pressure, generics penetration, and restriction of the physician access point to an erosion of its attractiveness. The fundamental demographics and epidemiology, the declining cost of the promotional model, and a focus on innovation and differentiation remain strong. The future emphasis on value and outcomes will continue to secure a place for innovative and differentiated products in Japan. Novel, orphan and emerging biologic development pathways in Japan are affecting batch scale & manufacturing economies, calling for precision processing environments, technical flexibility & operational capabilities. Collaborating with contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMOs) can allow drug developers to avoid the time & resources required to build that capability in-house and leverage existing experience to bring more effective treatments to patients faster in Japan.
- Burden of chronic disease is soaring
The incidences and prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and others are growing in Japan. As greater longevity forces Japan to lift the retirement age, more people are still working at the point at which these diseases conditions start. The growing middle-class population in Japan & the increasing adoption of sedentary lifestyles, leading to obesity, diabetes, and other costly health conditions.
What causes the most deaths?
| Diseases Conditions | % of deaths |
| Alzheimer’s disease | 46.9% |
| Stroke | 15.8% |
| Ischemic heart disease | 14.6% |
| Lower respiratory infect | 23.4% |
| Lung cancer | 14.0% |
| Colorectal cancer | 23.9% |
| Stomach cancer | 1.6% |
| Chronic kidney disease | 24.3% |
| COPD | 29.0% |
| Pancreatic cancer | 26.8% |
- Healthcare policy-makers & payers are increasingly mandating
In recent years, treatment protocols have replaced individual prescribing decisions or personalized medication systems. The major pharma’s companies target audience is also becoming more consolidated & more powerful, with profound implications for its sales and various marketing model. The pharma industry will have to work much harder for its $, collaborate with healthcare payers & providers, as well as improve patient compliance in Japan.
Major stakeholders are involved in deciding
- Pay-for-performance is increasing
Growing number of healthcare payers in Japan are measuring the pharmacoeconomic performance of different medical devices and medicines. The higher adoption of electronic medical records will give the outcomes data healthcare practitioner need to determine top medical practice, discontinue products that are more expensive in Japan or less effective than comparable therapies & pay for treatments based on the outcomes.
- The limitations between different forms of healthcare are clouding.
The primary-healthcare sector is expanding as clinical advances render of numerous fatal diseases chronic. The self-medication sector is also increasing as more prescription products are switched to over-the-counter status. The needs of patients are changing accordingly. Where treatment is migrating from the doctor to ancillary care or self-care, patients will require more comprehensive information. Where treatment is migrating from the hospital to the primary-care sector, patients will require new services such as home delivery.
| Cause Of Death | Japan Rank | The US Rank |
| Coronary Heart Disease | 1 | 1 |
| Influenza and Pneumonia | 2 | 8 |
| Stroke | 3 | 5 |
| Lung Cancers | 4 | 4 |
| Lung Disease | 5 | 3 |
| Colon-Rectum Cancers | 6 | 9 |
| Stomach Cancer | 7 | 32 |
| Kidney Disease | 8 | 7 |
| Alzheimer’s & Dementia | 9 | 2 |
| Pancreas Cancer | 10 | 15 |
- In Japan, the demand for medicines is likely to grow most rapidly over the next forthcoming years.
Japan have very different clinical & economic characteristics, healthcare systems as well as attitudes towards the protection of intellectual property of medical dives and drugs. Pharmaceutical companies wanting to serve these markets successfully will therefore have to devise strategies that are tailored to their individual needs in Japan.
- Japan governments are beginning to focus on prevention rather than treatment
This is a major change in Japan’s pharmaceutical sector. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has been promoting the “National Health Promotion Movement in the 21st Century – Health Japan 21 – as the 3rd health promotion measures for citizens since 2000. Under the, the Japanese government aims to reduce the number of deaths of people, prolong healthy years of life, & improve people’s QOL (quality of life) in order to become a vigorous society in which all people can live in both good health physically as well as mentally.
- Regulators are becoming more concerted.
The leading national & multinational agencies in Japan have become much more cautious about approving truly innovative medicines in the country. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) is a complex organization that controls drugs and medical devices regulatory authority in Japan.
- Health 2.0 smashes the presents
The number of people in Japan using the Internet to find healthcare information has increased dramatically over the last decade. Some 66% of adults go online to research their conditions in Japan. Many blogs & online forums have also sprung up to cater for the increasingly information of hungry patients in Japan. It includes health 2.0 sites such as patientslikeme.com – which enables patients to compare symptoms and side effects; medhelp.org – where doctors and patients work together; and various disease-specific forums for patients with conditions such as cancer and epilepsy. The next stage in the healthcare system in the so-called Health 2.0 revolution – which is the propagation of electronic personal health records. The major tech giant companies such as Microsoft & Google have both launched services to help patients/people create as well as store their own healthcare or personal health records on the World Wide Web. On the other hand, many smaller players offer similar services, including myPHR.com, medicalrecords247.org and ihealthrecord.org. Numerous pharma companies have started transferring toward digital engagement models of varying degrees of superiority, ranging from e-detailing to mobile platforms for a physician as well as patient support.
- Going worldwide
Japanese companies are a mixture of large ones as well as midsize ones; they are continuously increasing their market share of overseas sales. The market shares of overseas sales of the top fourteen Japanese public branded pharma companies increased to about 49 percent in the fiscal year 2020. The companies are reallocating resources, & some are progressively reducing investment in the local market & accelerating the evolution of the go-to-market model in Japan.