National Center for Global Health and Medicine Reports Findings in Cancer (How are new drugs disseminated in Japan? Analysis using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims of Japan): Cancer

2022 MAR 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Cancer is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Tokyo, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Drug lag refers to the difference in the time of a new drug’s approval in different countries; moreover, the dissemination of the new drug after approval within the countries is another problem. We examined the nationwide dissemination of 11 cancer drugs approved in Japan between 2011 and 2015 using the National Database of insurance claims data.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from National Center for Global Health and Medicine, “We extracted data on the number of cancer drug prescriptions from 47 prefectures and associated demographic information, such as age and sex. Eight diabetes drugs were also examined for comparison. We observed a lag between the marketing approval date of the drugs and their first use. To further explore the rise and pattern of each drug’s dissemination, we analyzed the trend of the cumulative number and total of new prescriptions for each prefecture. The results showed that the first month of new cancer drug prescriptions varied across prefectures. On average they lagged by up to two months in the slowest prefectures, whereas the variation was almost non-existent for diabetes drugs. The patterns of dissemination varied more among cancer drugs across the seven Japanese geographical regions. After the initial prescription, the number of prescriptions showed a steep rise for most cancer drugs, whereas the increase was gradual for diabetes drugs.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The dissemination of cancer drugs had a greater lag time than that of diabetes drugs. Further research is needed to explore the causative factors to ensure that all effective drugs are equally accessible for those who need them.”

For more information on this research see: How are new drugs disseminated in Japan? Analysis using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims of Japan. Cancer Science, 2022. Cancer Science can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Cancer Science - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1349-7006)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Takehiro Sugiyama, Diabetes and Metabolism Information Center, Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 1-21-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8655, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Tomone Watanabe, Kenjiro Imai and Takahiro Higashi.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/cas.15322. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal Cancer Science is: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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