Japan to cut prices of all medicines by half

The Japanese government plans to reduce the prices of about half of the drugs included in the health insurance program when revising the fiscal year 2025 budget.

This decision will be made official next week. It should have the effect of reducing public medical spending by some 250 billion yen (1.52 billion euros), reducing the financial burden on patients while reducing the profits of the pharmaceutical industry.

In principle, prices are reviewed every two years at the same time as medical costs, but since 2021 the executive has carried out this task once a year so that there are no discrepancies in the prices of the market and official ones.

A survey carried out last September showed that market prices were on average 5.2% lower than official prices.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]