The drug is estimated to have been administered to 12,000 to 13,000 patients in Japan. All 20 dead patients developed liver dysfunction, and 210 similar side effect reports have been made, including suspected cases.
Kissei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced that for its vasculitis treatment drug “Tavneos” (generic name: avacopan), 20 deaths have been reported in Japan among patients who took the medication. This figure includes cases where a causal relationship is unclear. On the 15th, the company called on healthcare professionals to refrain from administering the drug to new patients.
About 10 passengers were taken to hospital after an emergency report of something being sprayed in a train car on the Tokaido Line section of the Ueno-Tokyo Line of East Japan Railway Co. at about 4:35 p.m. on Sunday 10th May.
The risk of hantavirus spreading in Japan through person-to-person transmission is low, even if infected passengers from a cruise ship linked to a recent outbreak enter the country, the health ministry said Wednesday. The ministry called on the public to remain calm, after three people died in a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean. A Japanese national is among passengers on the ship.
Japan’s health minister Kenichiro Ueno said Friday he will call for nationwide vaccination to prevent measles. According to the health chief, 299 measles cases were reported between Jan. 1 and April 12, already exceeding the total figure for 2025. Cluster infections were observed at schools and others.
In a retrial at the Fukuoka District Court on the 20th, Presiding Judge Shinichi Suzushima sentenced a 44-year-old male radiological technologist to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years.The man had been charged with quasi-forcible indecency for touching the chest of a female student with intellectual disabilities during a 2018 medical check-up at a high school in Fukuoka Prefecture. Judge Suzushima upheld the credibility of the student’s testimony, describing the act as a “despicable crime that exploited his professional position.”
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Thursday that the government will release 50 million medical gloves from its stockpile to medical institutions starting next month. The move came after some medical institutions expressed concerns about supplies of medical products amid the Middle East crisis.
Japan’s Central Social Insurance Medical Council on Wednesday started to discuss extending the public health insurance coverage to two regenerative medicine products using induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells. The council, which advises the health minister, is expected to decide the official prices for the products as early as summer. The products will come into use for medical treatment after that.
Japan’s industry ministry has requested major oil wholesalers to sell fuel directly to medical institutions and public transportation operators affected by crude oil supply disruptions amid the worsening situation surrounding Iran. Designating hospitals and other institutions as critical facilities, the ministry asked wholesalers to supply fuel to them on a priority basis, ministry officials said Monday. The fuel subject to the request is expected to include fuel oil used in boilers for sterilizing medical equipment.
A nonprofit organization in the western Japan prefecture of Osaka has launched a crowdfunding campaign to continue its “doctor jet” service, which transports critically ill patients to medical facilities by air. Japan Critical Care Jet Network (JCCN), based in the city of Suita in Osaka, began the campaign on Monday to maintain the service for severely ill pediatric patients, with a goal of raising 200 million yen. The project has relied on donations, but funds have become depleted, making it difficult to continue operations without additional support. The doctor jet is an aircraft staffed with doctors and nurses that provides intensive care, including artificial respiration, while transporting patients to medical institutions, including those equipped with pediatric intensive care units.
Barrier Free Japan