This is only hypothetical.
(i)
Suppose there is an intractable disease (e.g., ulcerative colitis) and the number of patients is more than 1 million in the U.S. and 100,000 in Japan.
ii.
And suppose that tens of billions of yen have been invested in establishing a cure for the intractable disease.
(iii)
Currently, symptomatic treatment (mainly Pentasa and steroids in the case of ulcerative colitis) is continuously prescribed as a treatment method, and the market size of such treatment drugs is as large as 1 billion dollars worldwide.
⇒With these three assumptions in mind, we would like you to consider the following events. This is just a hypothetical…
In fact, it was found that this intractable disease can be cured with a certain herbal medicine, which is common in China.
⇒What will be the reaction of doctors and pharmaceutical companies when they learn this fact?
1. Establish a system to supply this inexpensive herbal medicine to patients with intractable diseases at a low price. 2.
2. They will try to get this inexpensive crude drug certified and sell it as a new drug at a high price.
Obviously, from the standpoint of the patients and the public who bear the medical and insurance costs, we would like to request the first solution, but it is easy to imagine that they will aim for the second solution in order to make huge profits.
Can’t we do something about it?