Personalized and Precision Medicine in Japan

Abstract

As many other countries, Japan is working on development of personalized and precision medicine. This paper explains Japan’s policies regarding personalized and precision medicine, including data collection, supports for its development and its insurance coverage such as its process and criteria and describes four drugs and companion diagnosis. Especially as for the insurance coverage, Japan has not examined the cost-effectiveness of personalized and precision medicine and its impact on healthcare expenditures. On the other hand, since the United Kingdom considers cost-effectiveness in considering the insurance coverage, the United Kingdom limits the use of Imatinib due to cost-effectiveness while Japan does not limit it.