AFTE Spotlight on Enforcement #8

AFTE Spotlight on Enforcement #8



Did you know that Japan uses an arbitrary and unscientific “cost-effectiveness” metric to set drug prices? This price-setting drastically undervalues U.S. medicines, thus depriving U.S. innovators of sales opportunities and deterring them from introducing novel drugs in Japan.

When U.S. drug firms can’t afford to launch therapies in Japan, patients in both countries lose out. For example, Japanese patients can only access half of all new medicines approved worldwide between 2011 and 2019. And even though American patients can access virtually all these therapies, Japan’s price controls negatively impact U.S. research budgets, thus curtailing future discoveries.

To better serve patients everywhere, U.S. trade negotiators must demand that trading partners abandon harmful price-setting schemes.

Well, now you know.