From the perspective of the Japanese market, the future trend of drug price adjustment

With the comprehensive development of the Chinese market in the medical insurance reform and payment system reform, the speed and magnitude of drug price adjustment have been significantly adjusted, effectively making up for the problem

The following section analyzes the price adjustment of the three most important categories of drugs in Japan, namely: internal medicine, external medicine, and injection medicine

The number of medicines involved in the adjustment

Internal medicine drugs participated in the most drug price adjustments, with the price of 10,572 drugs adjusted in 2016, and the number of drugs adjusted in 2018 and 2019 slightly increased by 2% and 1%, after which the number of drugs involved in the adjustment began to decline, falling to 8703 in

In 2018, the products that entered the price adjustment for the first time in internal medicine, injectable drugs and external drugs only accounted for 18%, 15% and 10% of all the products participating in the price adjustment that year, and in August 2021, they fell to 3%, 6% and 3%

Chart 1: Proportion of the number of products newly entered into the price adjustment in Japan (not adjusted before)

Source: Latitude Health Analysis, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan

Drug prices have risen and fallen

In terms of adjustment range, most drugs are reduced in drug prices, and at this point, internal medicines, injectable drugs and external drugs are relatively similar

It can be seen that most drugs are reduced in

Figure 2: Japan's last five times to reduce the proportion of drugs

Source: Latitude Health Analysis, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan

The average price of drugs is adjusted

The decline in internal medicine is the largest, with three of the five adjustments from 2018 to August 2021 with an average decline of more than 10%, and the highest average decline occurred in 2019, reaching a 13% decline

However, for drugs whose prices are adjusted to rise, Japan's increase in the price of drugs is also relatively high, and the increase in the price of external drugs is the highest, with an average increase of more than

Figure 3: Average decline in various types of medicines in Japan

Source: Latitude Health Analysis, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that in the past five years of drug price adjustment in Japan, the number of drugs involved in the price adjustment of internal medicine drugs is the largest, and the number is significantly more than that of injectable drugs and external drugs

In terms of adjustment range, if you do not consider products with flat drug prices, 90% of the drugs with price changes are reduced

Overall, Japan has adopted a strategy of slowing down drug prices and does not pursue a quick one-step approach

Therefore, for the Chinese market, the biggest enlightenment of the Japanese market is how to implement supporting measures while adjusting drug prices, and ultimately achieve the desired effect of