Potential and Challenges for Start-ups in Japan’s Biotech Industry

Abstract

Although Japan has both a globally rare national mandated healthcare program and one of the most extensive life science research capabilities in the world, there is a future risk of their divergence due to Japan’s aging citizenry and the patent cliff of blockbuster drugs in domestic pharmaceutical industry. In order to bridge the gap between the research findings and the healthcare welfare with innovative new drugs under a prolonged drug development period and diminishing grace period before generic drug introduction, we will examine the potential of flexible risk management methods in biotech start-ups from real options, game theory, and start-up ecosystems perspectives. One of the reasons of this article’s focus on the biotech start-ups reflects the trend of the government 2015 policy as ‘Comprehensive reform of social security and tax’ for the global drug discovery and start-up founding.