Abstract
We surveyed the representatives from the (1) Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association，(2) health economic researchers registered with Institute for Health Economics and Policy，(3) universities with pharmacy schools，(4) university hospitals and (5) Officials in the Ministry of Health and Welfare to assess current perspectives on pharmacoeconomic research (PER) in Japan.
We collected 114 returns of 268 mailed questionnaires designed to assess and describe the;
1) main conductors of PER，experience with research, and types of training received,
2) possible utilization of PER on various decision-making and on R&D processes for pharmaceutical development,
3) methods of PER,
4) the most common barriers to well-conducted PER.
Qualitatively，PER in Japan is in the initial stages of development, and approximately 60-65% of those sampled indicated that they are not actively conducting or utilizing PER. All respondents indicated that PER is potentially useful and on average see its utilization as most important in industry and in Phase IV of the R&D process. A consensus on methodology or objectives does not exist at this time. The largest barriers to PER in Japan were considered by respondents to be lack of trained experts and lack of good quality data.
