Pharmaceutical Administration and Regulations in Japan - Nihs

and use of drugs for pediatric use obtained
by individual import are common.
At present, laws and regulations aimed at
drug development and direct promotion of
information dissemination in the pediatric
field such as those in the EU and United
States do not exist in Japan. When clinical
trials are planned for dose setting, etc. in
children during approval applications or after
approval of drugs intended for use in children
to collect information on experience of use in
pediatric populations, the reexamination
period can be now extended for a set period
not exceeding 10 years in consideration of
special surveys and clinical studies during
the reexamination period (Notification No.
1324 of the PMSB dated December 27,
2000).
Requests for the addition of indications by
related academic societies can be handled
by an application for partial changes in
approved items such as indications or
dosage/administration on the basis of clinical
studies or clinical results in accordance with
notifications (No. 4 of the Research and
Development Division, Health Policy Bureau
and No. 104 of the Evaluation and Licensing
Division, PMSB dated February 1, 1999),
when the necessity of additional indications
in healthcare are confirmed and requests to
study are made by the Research and
Development Division of the Health Policy
Bureau. This can also be applied to drugs
Pharmaceutical Regulations in Japan:
intended for use in the pediatric field. In
these notifications, it states that all or part of
the clinical studies do not have to be
performed again and when the indications
related to off-label use are public knowledge
in medicine or pharmacology, this can be
applied to judgments on whether or not to
approve indications.
The Study Group on Unapproved Drugs
was founded in December 2004 to perform
reliable clinical studies on drugs not
approved in Japan for which efficacy was
established and approvals granted in the
West in order to assure prompt approvals in
Japan. Periodic surveys and scientific
evaluations of requests of academic societies
and patients are undertaken, often involving
drugs for pediatric use. In March 2006, the
Study Group on Pediatric Drug Treatment
was established to collect and evaluate
evidence on the efficacy and safety of
pediatric drug treatment, to conduct surveys
on prescriptions for drugs for pediatric use
and to provide information to health
professionals for the environmental
improvement to adequate pediatric drug
treatment. Thereafter, both study groups
were developmentally reorganized into a new
“Study group to investigate unapproved
drugs and off-label use of drugs urgently
required for healthcare” in February 2010.
The committee started wide-ranging
discussions on off-label drugs including
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