Health Blog : Japanese Takeout: Drug Making: "Japan’s health ministry says the country’s drug market is in a “crisis situation.” Domestic drug makers are having trouble competing overseas and the world’s drug makers are passing over Japan when introducing new products.
nullIn a draft vision statement outlining policy for the next five years, the ministry notes that 13 of the world’s top 100 drugs in 2005 originated in Japan–not bad, by some measures, but not improving in recent years, either. “Since 2000, no major-league new drug has emerged from Japan,” it says. (Shionogi, which discovered the cholesterol drug Crestor, might disagree. AstraZeneca, which has its own pipeline problems, licensed world-wide rights to Crestor from Shionogi.)"
