The government said Tuesday it will start reviewing drug prices every year, instead of every two years, in a bid to reduce mounting health care costs — a move that reflects growing resistance to rising drug prices around the world.
The government will also review all drug prescription prices instead of limiting its list to pharmaceuticals judged to be far more expensive than their overseas counterparts. The current system has been criticized as keeping drug prices unnecessarily high in Japan.
The change follows last month's halving of the Japanese price of cancer drug Opdivo, developed by a Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. unit and Ono Pharmaceutical Co., and an earlier move to slash the price of Gilead Science Inc.'s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi.