ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has launched a drug information website, called Yakujien, which can be connected with medical SNS.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is building Community-based integrated care systems, which provides services, including health care, nursing care and livelihood support, aiming to create a society where the elderly can live as they wish in familiar surroundings in Japan, where the population is aging rapidly. The number of people receiving home medical care is increasing and will exceed 1 million in 2025.*¹
In home medical care, a patient is cared for by a variety of healthcare professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, nurses and care managers, from different bases, and it is necessary for them to share information on the patient. Efficiently sharing accurate information on drugs for patients is particularly becoming more and more important not only for doctors and pharmacists, but also nurses, care managers and other people involved in home medical care.

Yakujien*² is the only drug information website for healthcare professionals in Japan that is linked to Medical Care Station*³ (MCS), one of Japan’s largest medical SNS. It posts the updated package inserts of the more than 20,000 ethical drugs used in Japan, which contain medical information and their side effects. Yakujien is linked to the patients’ drug pages of MCS. Each page contains easy-to-read text and the information can be shared by people involved other than doctors and pharmacists.

Yakujien helps pharmaceutical companies provide drug information. ITOCHU will expand the services offered by Yakujien as a platform that meets healthcare professionals’ needs for information and companies’ needs for providing drug information.

ITOCHU has set a policy of “Evolution of business model with new technologies” in its Medium-Term Management Plan, “Brand-new Deal 2020: Becoming a Next-Generation Merchant.” The launch of Yakujien is in line with this policy. Positioning healthcare as an area of focus, ITOCHU will continue to promote active business development to contribute to a society where better medical care will be provided.