The Japanese pharma sector may have previously lagged behind its counterparts in Europe and North America in helping the very poorest people in the developing world, but the enthusiasm with which five of Japan’s biggest pharmaceutical companies have embraced the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund indicates a sea change in policy. Set up in early 2013, the Tokyo-based fund is specifically designed to push Japanese firms’ considerable technologies and expertise in developing innovations for a range of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and neglected tropical diseases.
The fund brings together Astellas Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai Co, Shionogi & Co and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, and is primarily investing in medicines already at the product development stage. These could be brought to market in the near future and have significant potential.
‘There are certainly instances in which Japanese pharma companies have provided subsidised medicines to the world’s poorest of the poor,’ pointed out Dr B T Slingsby, GHIT CEO and former executive of Eisai. ‘That being said, the GHIT Fund actually represents the first time Japan pharma as a collective has stepped up to assume a leadership role in reducing the burden of disease in the developing world,’ he said. ‘It’s also the first time Japan’s research and development capacity has been tapped to tackle neglected diseases,’ he added.
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