Current Status of Formulary in Japan and the Assessment of Various Value Components of Medicines

Abstract

Development of a formulary is an important issue to achieve rational use of medicines in each local medical area in Japan. The purpose of developing the formulary is to secure the access for safe, effective, and affordable medications based on evidence for patients, families, healthcare professionals as well as for general publics. The economic aspect plays an important role for the establishment of the formulary, while the word "economic" is often misread as simple "cost reduction", which only aims to generic/biosimilar substitutions. Both health outcomes and costs, should be taken into account under the true "health economic analysis", or the cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA). Information provided via the CEA could be useful for establishment of the formulary. Moreover, various value assessment of medicines in health technology assessments (HTA) field beyond the current approach of safety, effectiveness, and economics evaluations should be considered. In this review, we discuss comprehensive assessment of various value components of medicines to establish the most suitable formulary which would contribute to whole society, as well as healthcare facilities/patients.