Japan’s development of COVID-19 vaccines is far behind that of global rivals.
With the general public unlikely to have access to Japan-made vaccines until 2022, industry sources say reasons include a failure by the nation to address problems such as a lack of consolidation within the pharmaceutical industry and the sheltering of relatively small Japanese firms from international competition.
This week the U.K. became the first Western country to begin inoculating its citizens with a commercially available COVID-19 vaccine. The same day, biotech startup AnGes Inc. — Japan’s front-runner, which has teamed up with Takara Bio Inc. and Osaka University — announced it had started a mid- to late-stage clinical trial of its DNA-based vaccine involving 500 healthy adults at eight facilities in the nation.