Japan is aiming for the betterment of pharma R&D and medical services for rare disease patients by building a database connecting genome analysis data and clinical records. While several clinical studies are planned for the next couple of years, there are also concerns around the actual trickle-down of benefits to patients and data privacy.

The data collected from wearable devices for a year will provide lifecycle data to a much long-termed study with various health data. The study will not only contribute to drug discovery and personalized healthcare by the firms in near future, but also suggests bigger goals by Japan’s healthcare industry.

Japan is forging ahead with a national project to elucidate cancer-related gene alterations in its population, both to identify responder patients for possible inclusion in clinical trials for targeted therapies and to inform the development of new treatments.