Japan wants a pharma boom. It needs a new strategy.

What happened: Japan's government approved the Japan Growth Strategy in July, designating 17 strategic sectors, including drug development and advanced medicine, which the administration has made a particular focus. Key numbers: 17 strategic sectors designated; two concern health and medicine; strategy approved in July. Why it matters: Japan's postwar regulatory and drug-pricing systems were built to ensure safety, affordability and stable supply, not to promote the industry as a strategic asset, and have increasingly constrained its competitiveness.

Japan's government approved the Japan Growth Strategy in July, designating 17 strategic sectors, including drug development and advanced medicine, which the administration has made a particular focus.

Japan's postwar regulatory and drug-pricing systems were built to ensure safety, affordability and stable supply, not to promote the industry as a strategic asset, and have increasingly constrained its competitiveness.