The collaboration between Towa Pharmaceutical and Otsuka Pharmaceutical on the stable supply of off-patent drugs has attracted attention not merely as a corporate partnership, but as an initiative that fundamentally reexamines the structure of Japan’s pharmaceutical industry. The vision presented at the recent briefing appears to go beyond the conventional notion that “once a patent expires, a drug’s role is over,” instead proposing a new framework for sustaining pharmaceuticals as part of essential social infrastructure.
The Message Embedded in “Phase One”
Towa Pharmaceutical’s President, Itsuro Yoshida, described this collaboration as “Phase One.” This wording signals that the partnership with Otsuka Pharmaceutical is not an exception, but rather a potential standard model for the future. The policy of engaging in broad dialogue not only with originator drug manufacturers and generic drug manufacturers, but also with contract manufacturing organizations, suggests an awareness of the need to redesign the industry as a whole beyond traditional corporate boundaries.
Particularly important is the perspective of treating off-patent drugs as “a unified market.” Rather than focusing on the distinction between originator and generic drugs, this approach places the uninterrupted supply of therapeutically necessary medicines at the highest priority, reflecting an intention to share supply responsibility across the entire industry.
How to Preserve the “Knowledge of Originator Drugs” That Has Been Lost
In the pharmaceutical industry, while the transition to generic drugs has accelerated after patent expiration, the manufacturing technologies and quality control know-how accumulated by originator companies over many years have often gone underutilized and been lost. This is not merely an issue for individual companies, but a loss for Japan’s pharmaceutical industry as a whole.
Under this collaboration, it is envisaged that the manufacturing data and technologies accumulated by Otsuka Pharmaceutical could be utilized by Towa Pharmaceutical in the development and production of generic drugs. This represents a shift from “enclosing knowledge for competition” to “passing on knowledge for the industry,” and is highly significant in terms of transmitting technology to the next generation.
Flexible Options: Succession and Contract Manufacturing
The concrete forms of collaboration presented include both the transfer of manufacturing and marketing rights to Towa Pharmaceutical, and arrangements in which Otsuka Pharmaceutical retains marketing rights while Towa Pharmaceutical undertakes manufacturing on a contract basis. This flexibility is essential for building optimal supply systems tailored to the characteristics and demand trends of individual drugs.
Rather than a uniform push toward generics, the ability to choose the most stable supply structure for each drug reflects a pragmatic and realistic approach.
Domestic Self-Sufficiency and Regional Economies
President Yoshida’s emphasis on “a high domestic self-sufficiency rate for pharmaceuticals” and “contributions to regional economies” symbolizes the broader social significance of this collaboration. Pharmaceuticals are closely linked to national security and public health, and maintaining a stable domestic production capacity is critically important.
This initiative should be seen not as a stopgap response to supply shortages, but as a structural effort to sustain Japan’s domestic manufacturing base. It can also be evaluated as a move to redefine the pharmaceutical industry from a “cost-competition arena” to a “foundational industry that supports society.”
Conclusion
The collaboration between Towa Pharmaceutical and Otsuka Pharmaceutical presents one possible answer to the challenges surrounding off-patent drugs by addressing them at the industry-wide level. How this “Phase One” will expand, involve other companies, and form new standards going forward is a topic well worth continued attention, particularly from the dual perspectives of stable drug supply and the succession of technological expertise.