Otsuka Responds to the Office of Inspector General’s Favorable Opinion Regarding its Hospital Free Trial Program of Long-Acting Injectable for Inpatient Schizophrenia Treatment

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI), today acknowledges the importance of the favorable opinion of Otsuka’s Hospital Free Trial Program by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), which provides guidance for the design of manufacturer inpatient free trial programs that provide long-acting anti-psychotic injectable (LAI) products for the treatment of serious mental illness in a hospital setting.

The LAI free trial programs are intended to provide access to medication, free of charge, when a healthcare professional has determined that a patient admitted for the treatment of a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia will benefit from onsite drug therapy with an LAI. Such programs are designed to improve medication adherence and clinical outcomes for a vulnerable patient population. Non-adherence to prescribed therapies leads to poor outcomes among patients with schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, including worsening of symptoms, suicide, increased rates of hospitalizations and longer lengths of hospital stays, all of which impose significant financial burdens on the healthcare system.

“This favorable opinion by OIG of Otsuka’s program is important because it will increase the treatment options available to hospital providers and their patients. It is critically important that clinicians have access to long-acting injectable antipsychotic medications to advance compliance for this seriously ill patient population,” said Robert McQuade, PhD, president, McQuade Center for Strategic Research and Development, LLC, and chief strategic officer, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. “This opinion validates Otsuka’s program design and our commitment to identifying solutions that keep the patient at the center of everything we do.”

About Otsuka

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a global healthcare company with the corporate philosophy: “Otsuka–people creating new products for better health worldwide.” Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures, and markets innovative products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products to meet unmet medical needs and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health.

In pharmaceuticals, Otsuka is a leader in the challenging areas of mental, renal, and cardiovascular health and has additional research programs in oncology and on several under-addressed diseases including tuberculosis, a significant global public health issue. These commitments illustrate how Otsuka is a “big venture” company at heart, applying a youthful spirit of creativity in everything it does.

Otsuka established a presence in the U.S. in 1973 and today its U.S. affiliates include Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC) and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI). These two companies’ 1,700 employees in the U.S. develop and commercialize medicines in the areas of mental health, nephrology, and cardiology, using cutting-edge technology to address unmet healthcare needs.

OPDC and OAPI are indirect subsidiaries of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The Otsuka group of companies employed 47,000 people worldwide and had consolidated sales of approximately USD 13.3 billion in 2020.

All Otsuka stories start by taking the road less traveled. Learn more about Otsuka in the U.S. at www.otsuka-us.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter at @OtsukaUS. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.’s global website is accessible at www.otsuka.co.jp/en/.