Open Source Software Adoption in Japan’s Pharma Industry: Key Findings from the 2024 JPMA R Usage Survey

Summary

This webinar was hosted by the R consortium featuring speakers from the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA) to explore the results of the “2024 OSS Usage Status Questionnaire Report.”

This report captures how pharmaceutical companies in Japan are adopting open-source software — particularly R — and how trends have evolved since our last survey in 2022.

Key highlights include:

  • Over 60% of companies have adopted R; 16 have used or plan to use R for regulatory submissions (e.g., FDA, PMDA).

  • 25% are actively using pharmaverse packages such as Admiral, rtables, and pkglite.

  • More than 80% expressed interest in submitting R Shiny applications, similar to the R Consortium’s Pilot 4.

During the session, JPMA members will walk through the key insights and host a Q&A discussion to address your questions and perspectives.

Speakers

Shinichi Hotta, Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd. 

Shinichi Hotta is a Statistical Programmer at Sumitomo Pharma. He has 22 years of experience as a statistical programmer in pharmaceutical companies and Contract Research Organizations (CROs), working for clinical trials and submissions in Japan, the US, China and more. Throughout his career, he has given presentations about data analyses, SAS, R and CDISC (the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium). Since 2020, he has been the leader of the open-source software task force in the JPMA.

Yuki Matsunaga, Novartis Pharma K.K.

Yuki Matsunaga has held multiple positions at Novartis Pharma KK (Japan) including Clinical Development Director Japan, Statistical Programmer, Medical Scientific Expert, and Medical Science Liaison.

He is currently working on new drug development and retrospective studies using medical real-world data such as electronic healthcare records and health claims data. He is also a member of the {admiralophtha} (“Ophthalmology”) development team, and a start-up member of the open-source software task force in the JPMA.