Public risk, private profit.
Patients are willing to pay, and pay dearly: the HeartSheet treatment costs nearly ¥15 million (US$122,000). Last month, the health ministry added it to the procedures covered by national health insurance, which will help. But patients still pay 10–30% of the cost for a drug that is not known to be effective. As they do so, they basically subsidize the company’s clinical trial.
Japan has turned the drug-discovery model on its head. Usually, the investment — and thus the risk — is borne by drug companies, because they stand to gain in the long run. Now the risk is being outsourced. By the time it is clear whether a treatment works or not, the companies will have already made revenue from it.