Drug Evaluation Committee A Beginner's Guide to the Use of NDB in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Medical Information DBTF
April 2026
The convenience of the NDB has been steadily increasing through successive revisions of the system, including rapid provision, provision of pseudonymized information, and consolidated provision with other public databases.
On the other hand, there are many pharmaceutical companies that have not yet used NDB. It is assumed that such companies do not necessarily have the latest information on the uses of NDB, types of data sets, methods of use, rules for use, and so on.
The Task Force has collected information on points to keep in mind when using NDB from the perspective of pharmaceutical companies by confirming the latest rules with the government, interviewing researchers and pharmaceutical companies that have experience using NDB, and hearing from companies that provide usage support services.
The results have now been compiled into a "Beginner's Guide to the Use of NDB in Pharmaceutical Companies. The purpose of this document is to assist pharmaceutical companies in making decisions about whether NDB meets their objectives, whether NDB is feasible to use, how to use NDB appropriately, and which documents to refer to, by first referring to it when considering the use of NDB. The purpose of this document is to assist pharmaceutical companies in making decisions regarding the use of NDBs.
We hope that this document will be useful to those involved in surveys and research at pharmaceutical companies.
Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Drug Evaluation Committee
Task Force for Promotion of Medical DB Utilization Subteam 1