Toshihiko Takeda

Senior Advisor
​Boston Consulting Group

Toshihiko Takeda
Former Director-General, Health Policy Bureau.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), Japan
Current Position Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group 

Policy Advisor, Cabinet Secretariat’s Office of Health and Medical Policy 

Visiting Professor, Iwate Medical University 

Advisor, Nishimura & Asahi
Toshihiko Takeda joined the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) in 1983, immediately after his graduation from the Tokyo University. His experience in the Ministry covers health policy, health insurance policy, industrial policy for health industries, and overall social security policy. He also served as a director with JETRO New York Center, working for health care industry.

He worked as the Deputy Director-General of Health Insurance Bureau in 2014-15, the Director-General of Policy Planning for Social Security System in 2015-16 and the Director-General of Pharmaceutical Safety and Environmental Health in 2016-2017, he was appointed as the Director-General of Health Policy Bureau in July 2017, then retired in 2018. He joined the Boston Consulting Group in 2019.

In September 2023, he was appointed as a policy advisor to the Cabinet Secretariat's Office of Health and Medical Policy.

Speech title & Synopsis

Toward Enhancing Japan's Drug Discovery Capabilities

Japan has been one of the world's leading countries in the development of pharmaceuticals. However, there are concerns that Japan is beginning to lose rapid access to the world's latest medicines due to a declining of drug development capability, caused by shift in drug development from small molecules to biotechnologies and strict policies on the price of medicines. In response, since last year, the government has been discussing policies that should be taken to strengthen drug discovery capabilities, and a report has recently been compiled. I was appointed as the Special Advisor for this policy making last year, and I would like to share the contents of this report.