NHI (National Health Insurance) Drug Pricing System Reflecting the Value of New Drugs Proposal for an Application Price Consultation System
Naoya Fujiwara (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceutical and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
Mikio Sasabayashi (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
Mitsuaki Yamamoto (Senior Research Fellow, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
Haruhiko Nobayashi (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
(No.28: Published in July 2005)
With the healthcare reform scheduled for fiscal 2006 just around the corner, discussions on measures to optimize healthcare costs, including a review of the scope of public insurance benefits, have begun in earnest on various fronts. Discussions are also underway at the Central Social Insurance Medical Council regarding a review of the rules for calculating drug prices with a view to fundamental reform of the drug price standard system.
Under these circumstances, the Pharmaceutical and Industrial Policy Research Institute (PIIPRI) has been studying how the NHI drug price system should be designed so that the value of new drugs is appropriately reflected in NHI prices and new drug creation is promoted. In particular, the NHI has focused its study on the NHI drug price calculation method for new drugs, because it is aware of the problem that the current NHI drug price system does not always reflect the value of new drugs appropriately and does not sufficiently respond to the diversification of the value of new drugs due to future technological innovations.
In this report, we provide the background to our proposal and make new proposals regarding the "application price consultation method" and the establishment of a "forum for dialogue between the government and industry" for calculating the NHI price of new drugs.