The Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) is a Japanese regulatory agency, working together with MHLW. PMDA’s Office of Biologicals provides consultations concerning the clinical trials of new drugs and medical devices and handles biotechnology medicines, including biosimilars.

In March 2009, guidelines for biosimilars, based on the European Union’s existing processes, were published by the MHLW [1].

These guidelines consider biosimilar drugs to be those products that are equivalent and homogenous to the reference biological product in terms of efficacy, quality and safety.

The first biosimilar to receive approval in Japan was Sandoz’s growth hormone treatment Somatropin BS (somatropin) in June 2009. To date, Japan has approved six biosimilars within the product classes of human growth hormone and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, for use in Japan, see Table 1.

Table 1: PMDA approved biosimilars*

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Reference

1.  GaBI Online – Generics and Biosimilars Initiative. Japanese guidelines for biosimilars [www.gabionline.net]. Mol, Belgium: Pro Pharma Communications International; [cited 2014 Aug 1]. Available from: www.gabionline.net/Guidelines/Japanese-guidelines-for-biosimilars

Source: www.gabionline.net