Japanese Government Supports Investment in Cell and Gene Therapy by Certifying the Cell and Gene Test
3 February 2020
In supporting the investment of cell and gene therapy, Japan has been developing fast, especially in January 2019. Japanese government allowed the use of gene and a genetic test for the cancer drug and treatment to be covered by national public health insurance. The essential testing is cancer genome profiling that is of similar quality to the case of the European Union and the USA. These new tests will bring new hope to the patients who encounter unsuccessful treatment from conventional cancer treatment. There are two authorized test systems under the insurance coverage, National Cancer Center and health instrument-maker Sysmex Corp., and import technology from the USA by Chugai corp. Both tests can identify the cancerous gene for at least 101 points.
Under the insurance scheme, the government hopes that there will be more patients who could undergo the test. Under the cost-sharing system, the testing cost would be a lot smaller than the current level of 560,000 yen, and it will cover at least 10,000 to 20,000 persons per year out of the new one million cancer patients per year. The patient can send their tissue to the leading eleven hospitals that research genomic cancer drugs and 156 other hospitals across Japan. Then, the researcher would provide the most effective prescribed medication.
Under the support measures, even if it is high budget cost, it will help in promoting the market for genetic testing and genetic treatment, especially in the marketing of new drugs such as Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) that can be a substitute for breast cancer chemotherapy. The medicine is under the joint development of AstraZeneca PLC and Daiichi Sankyo, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Japan. If success, such treatment would boost the Japanese company competitiveness and enter successfully into the global market.
Also, apart from better treatment for the patient and developing new drugs, the new insurance scheme would help in collecting more complete data on gene and cell therapy of patients over time. This new data would help develop a more precise test and treatment. The anonymized data with guarding patient privacy would help in boosting both the drug and medical industry. Also, the data would be used for better research and development of better drugs and treatment.
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