The Japanese government has invited Indian pharmaceutical companies to set up ventures in that country to meet the growing demand for high quality and inexpensive generic medicines.

The expansion of the usage of generic drugs in Japan will contribute to boost the pharma trade and investment between two countries. The Japanese government has also amended the pharmaceutical affair act and the procedures for starting the companies have been simplified.

The Japanese government is working on ensuring quality, credibility and information disclosure, enhancing the business environment, revising the medical insurance system and ensuring a stable supply to support the Indian pharma companies investing in Japan

Shigeki Maeda, executive vice president, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Tokyo, explaining the need of generic drugs in Japan says, “An aging society with fewer children is growing in Japan today. The percentage of the population aged 65 and older is higher compared to other developed countries. Therefore, medical expenses are on the increase every year due to an increase in the number of elderly aged 75 years and older with characteristics of high consultation rate for chronic diseases, high disease rate, and high nursing care utilization rate.”

“The generics market apparently dominates the Indian pharma industry which consists of over 70 per cent share of the market. This development will help Indian pharmaceutical companies to make inroads into the Japanese market and help Japan to meet its demand for high quality and inexpensive generic medicines,” said Maeda.

The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, Japan is taking measures to reduce the price of long-listed proprietary drugs (original drugs), in accordance with the possible rate of replacement with generic drugs. The ministry is working on introducing generic drugs by widening the price gap between proprietary products and generic drugs.

He also said that the Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association of Japan, a pharmaceutical industry organisation, has been tasked with providing guidelines to individual drug manufacturer for creating manuals to ensure stable supply of drugs. In this process the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare encourages various generic drug manufacturers to create generic drugs.

The penetration rate of Japanese generic drugs is at more than 56 per cent, the government aims to reach 70 per cent market penetration by middle of the year 2017. In addition, the growth in demand for generic drugs is expected to reach 80 per cent between FY 2018 and FY 2020.