The health ministry has started considering ways to promote the use of follow-on products of very expensive original biological drugs.
Options include increasing out-of-pocket costs of patients who choose original drugs even though the original and follow-on products have the same quality and effects, and raising fees paid to medical institutions that prescribe follow-on biological drugs, also known as biosimilars.
The ministry aims to introduce new measures in fiscal 2026, which starts next April, as a way to curb the country's ballooning medical costs.
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