Japan Govt Mulls Extending Protection Period for New Drugs

The Ministry of Health is considering extending the protection period for new drugs to eight years from the current six in order to give pharmaceutical firms a better opportunity to recoup development costs and secure profits, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported over the weekend. Comparable protection in major European countries covers about 10 years. And while the period is only around five years in the U.S., pharmaceutical companies there are free to set their own prices, enabling them to quickly generate profits from blockbuster drugs, the newspaper noted.

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