Domestic Business

Net sales

Japan’s prescription Kampo products market grew 90% in terms of sales, and 210% in volume, over the past 20 years, indicating that the products are penetrating the medical service market on a nationwide scale.
Tsumura’s share of the prescription Kampo formulation market is very high, at 83.2% as of the end of FY2022.
We also boast Japan’s broadest lineup of marketed prescription Kampo formulations, providing 129 out of the 148 formulations approved by the government.

Changes in descriptions related to Kampo formulations appearing in the model medical curriculum reflecting the establishment of Kampo medicine and development of related education

2001 (formulated): “ability to explain about Kampo medicines”
2011 (revised): “ability to give an outline of the characteristics and use status of Kampo medicines”
2017 (revised): “ability to give an outline of the characteristics of Kampo medicine as well as the application and pharmacological action of major Kampo medicines”

Promoting Kampo formulation drug fostering through accumulation of evidence (from FY2004)

2004: “Drug-fostering program” formulations were established for treatment areas with a high degree of medical need, targeting particularly diseases that are resistant to new Western drugs and for which Kampo formulations have demonstrated special efficacy; and this program is promoted by establishing evidence (scientific basis) for the target diseases.
2016: “Growing” formulations were established for treatment areas with low satisfaction with treatment or low degree of contribution from drugs, aiming for listings in treatment guidelines through accumulating evidence.

Social issues facing Japan

Japan is on the way to becoming a super-graying society, with the elderly population aged 75 or above expected to exceed 24 million, or 25% of the nation’s total population, in 2055.
In an aging society, the incidence of dementia and cases of suffering from heart failure induced by hypertension increases. Also, the progress of cancer treatment brings about an increasing number of cancer survivors, including patients under treatment and follow-up, while reducing cancer mortality.
This situation can cause constrained supply of hospital beds and rising demand for nursing care, posing serious social issues.

The number of female workers has increased one million in the past five years, with the women accounting for 45% of the entire national workforce.
Life stage transitions may trigger hormonal imbalance, a cause of various disorders and conditions. Against this background, it is anticipated that Kampo medicines will draw stronger interest from young working women looking on Kampo as a long-term health maintenance solution.

Solving social issues related to the three priority areas

Tsumura has positioned the areas of “geriatric health,” “cancer (supportive care)” and “women’s health” as its three priority areas in the prescription Kampo business, with the objective of solving social issues.
In the geriatric health area, it is predicted that the incidence of frailty, an aging-related condition, will rapidly increase. We aim to improve symptoms associated with frailty and prevent the condition from becoming severer, looking to help create a society in which many seniors can live an independent life.
In the cancer (supportive care) area, we commit to easing side effects of cancer treatment and the physical and mental pain of patients with the use of Kampo medications, wishing to improve the QOL of patients and facilitate their reintegration into society.
In the women’s health area, we plan to fortify the provision of information to facilitate the improvement of symptoms using Kampo medicines, focusing on cases associated with hormonal imbalance and other disorders chiefly related to pre-menstrual symptoms and menopause, a factor hampering many working women from exerting their capabilities to the fullest.

• Supportive care: treatments, including the alleviation of symptoms associated with cancer and due to cancer therapy

Three priority areas and drug-fostering program formulations/growing formulations

Drug-fostering program formulations and growing formulations are Kampo formulations related to the three priority areas.
We are engaged in ongoing activities to develop these programs, providing information about relevant Kampo formulations, such as basic and clinical evidence, write-ups in treatment guidelines, and scientific procedures of prescribing different formulations.
For example, in the geriatric health area, we have set two additional priority targets for peripheral symptoms of circulatory disorders and peripheral symptoms of frailty, seeking to respond to the related huge market needs, and we are striving to build basic and clinical evidence conducive to prognostic health management of elderly patients with heart failure, improvement of their holistic QOL, and extension of healthy longevity.

Creating an environment where individual patients can receive Kampo treatments in a way tailored to their specific needs

In the prescription Kampo business in Japan, we are aiming to create an environment where individual patients can receive Kampo treatments in a way tailored to their specific needs at any medical institution or clinical department.
As the first step to this end, we have begun to build a system to provide information on the safety, efficacy and quality of products via channels best suited to individual needs, hoping to help physicians, responsible for addressing many different cases, to write appropriate Kampo prescriptions for the specific symptoms of each patient.
At the same time, we are working to achieve the goal of increasing the percentage of clinical physicians prescribing 10 or more Kampo formulations to at least 50% by the end of FY2024.

Also, we are developing e-promotion using digital technology, mainly through TSUMURA MEDICAL SITE. We analyze data on the participation rate in webinars and web content viewed in order to identify areas of current interest of individual physicians. The analysis results are used to run hybrid-style promotions combined with MR activities in a bid to implement more advanced information provision activities.