Analyses of Drug Costs from FY2012 to FY2021

Abstract

For a long time, methodological limitations have been pointed out as for the estimation of drug costs in Japan, which relies on the results of the National Medical Expenditure and Survey of the Insurance-based Medical Care Activities. This study, from a different perspective, aims to grasp the trend of drug costs in Japan and hereby answer drug-related policy questions by combining monthly sales data on all prescription drugs from IQVIA Solutions Japan K. K. from FY2012 to FY2021 with data from Iyaku-Joho-Kenkyujo, Inc. using the YJ code. The results answered several questions. The depiction of the market sizes of brand-name drugs, long-listed drugs, and generics showed that one of the Japan’s recent policy goals, shifting from long-listed drugs to on brand-name drugs, was considerably achieved, as well as more usage of generics. Next, the effects of the re-pricing of antiviral drugs and anti PD-1 antibody drugs, various re-pricing and the normal price-revisions, the price maintenance for new drugs, and the market size of the essential drugs from the point of view of stable delivery. Third, simulation analyses in the absence of the regular price-revisions and various re-pricing. Overall, the result suggested that these various re-pricing mechanisms contributed to controlling overall drug costs, which is in line with the 2016 “The Basic Policy for Fundamental Reform of the Drug Pricing System”.