Clinical pharmacology and clinical trials in Japan

Clinical pharmacology is the pursuit of rational therapeutics by following the scientific principles of medicine and pharmacology. In Japan the roles for clinical pharmacology and clinical pharmacologists have been evolving since the discipline appeared in the 1950s. Clinical pharmacology and clinical trials for drug development depend on each other, and clinical pharmacologists play an important role in drug development in Japan. As the discipline becomes more important and complicated, many issues regarding drug therapeutics and clinical trials in Japan have been raised, and several points of view have been expressed. The following suggestions have been made to improve clinical pharmacology in Japan: (a) Medical education in the field of clinical pharmacology must be improved by creating or improving clinical pharmacology programs in medical schools. (b) The appropriate infrastructure for clinical trials must be established so that the physicians' workload is reduced, and patients' participation in clinical trials becomes much easier. (c) Scientific and ethical standards of the pharmaceutical industry must be improved, and the effort should be made to produce drugs with new mechanisms of action or with significant expected benefits. (d) The regulatory agency must provide stronger support, encompassing all the various points of view of academic institutes and the pharmaceutical industry. In light of the enthusiasm demonstrated by the government, physicians, and pharmaceutical industry in Japan for continued progress in clinical pharmacology, it seems likely that all its challenges will be overcome in the near future. Hence, despite the various problems discussed here the future seems promising for the continued development of clinical pharmacology.