China's generic drug makers struggle to survive bulk-buy policy onslaught
Even after a plunge last month that wiped $46 billion off Chinese health-care stocks, domestic drug makers may be far from their floor as a Beijing-led policy shift gathers pace. China's plan to drive down generic drug prices through a centralized bulk procurement program is ...
Japan's welfare ministry drafting bill to limit people on dole to generic drugs
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is drafting a bill to limit people on welfare to the use of generic drugs as health care costs continue to climb.
A large group of U.S. states accused key players in the generic drug industry of a broad price-fixing conspiracy, moving on Tuesday to widen an earlier lawsuit to add many more drug makers and medicines in an action that sent some company shares tumbling. The ...
The government plans to price generic drugs at 50 percent of brand-name drugs, down from the current 60 percent, from next April to encourage wider use of cheaper drugs and curb swelling medical spending, officials said Wednesday. The new proposal by the Ministry of Health, ...
Consumers slow to embrace generic drugs
In May, the health ministry announced that it would set a new target for the use of generic pharmaceuticals. In 2013, 46.9 percent of the prescription drugs dispensed in Japan were generics, and at first the ministry said it wanted to raise this portion ...
The Abe administration must take steps to ensure generic drugs are as safe and effective as their brand name counterparts.
Some experts doubt shift to generic drugs is best prescription for health care system
In a desperate bid to stem the rise in health care costs, the government is reining in one of its biggest medical outlays: prescription drugs. Japan spent a record ¥39.2 trillion on health care in fiscal 2011, out of which prescription drugs accounted for ¥8.4 ...
Free trade makes cancer drugs more affordable
The U.S. should drop its demand in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks that its trading partners respect a rule giving the American pharmaceutical industry 12 years of exclusive rights to its patents. Even Europe allows shorter time spans.
Hitherto unknown and self-styled "loach" Yoshihiko Noda must learn to swim in an ocean of problems as Japan's new prime minister of the year. He has more than a plateful of domestic issues, but he should also realize, as his predecessors forgot, that Japan ...
