Fujimoto Pharmaceutical Corp. has filed an application with the health ministry to manufacture and sell thalidomide as an authorized medicine, more than 40 years after the drug was banned in Japan for causing severe birth defects, according to a company official.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is expected to make a decision on whether to approve the drug in as little as a year to treat multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer afflicting about 14,000 people in Japan.
A U.S. company has obtained approval for thalidomide in the country after it was reported the drug is effective in treating the disease.