A Japanese medical expert in pediatric cancer told a symposium in Osaka on Saturday that a system needs to be developed to allow children in Japan to be treated with drugs that are available in other countries.

About 120 members of patient groups and medical workers took part in the event in Takatsuki City organized by The Japan Federation of Cancer Patients Group.

Ogawa Chitose, a doctor at the National Cancer Center Hospital, said some of the molecular target drugs, which attack proteins that contribute to the proliferation of cancer cells and are used in other countries, cannot be used to treat children in Japan.

Ogawa said this is attributed to the so-called "drug lag" caused by the inability to obtain approval due to the absence of clinical trials required for drugs developed in other countries.

She said there are fewer drugs available for children due to the smaller number of patients, and that 24, or 60 percent, of the 40 new pediatric cancer drugs developed in the United States between 2000 and 2022, have not been approved in Japan.

Ogawa said, because there are fewer drugs that can be used in Japan compared to other countries, some children have died because they did not have access to a wider range of drugs.

She said a system needs to be in place to encourage foreign pharmaceutical companies to conduct clinical trials in Japan, and approve drugs for both adults and children at the same time.

Moue Yuko who heads the Pediatric Brain Tumor Network, a group consisting of patients and their family members, said the situation in which drugs that are used in other countries cannot be used in Japan is very difficult for the parents. She added that she hopes a system will be created to quickly approve such drugs.