Our History

The story began in 1955, during the postwar reconstruction period. CRECON Research & Consulting Inc., the parent organization of CRECON Group, was established as Japan's first research organization for pharmaceutical industry. To ensure a stable supply of pharmaceuticals to the public, it was first required to accurately understand the actual distribution landscape. Beginning with nationwide management surveys of pharmaceutical wholesalers, the company steadily laid the “information foundation” that is essential to the industry's development through meticulous data gathering and analysis.

In the 2000s, IT advancements brought a growing focus on operational efficiency throughout the pharmaceutical distribution industry. For example, the procurement process from order placement by medical institutions and pharmacies to order receipt and delivery coordination by wholesalers was handled by each medical institution, pharmacy, and wholesaler via various manual methods including telephone, fax, or email. To address this challenge, CRECON Research & Consulting established MEDICODE Inc. in collaboration with leading pharmaceutical wholesalers. MEDICODE built a master system for centralized management of pharmaceutical codes to promote the nationwide standardization and operational support for electronic ordering systems. These efforts significantly contribute to enhancing the safety of pharmaceutical distribution and reducing redundant costs.

Nearly all prescription drugs used daily by patients in Japan are delivered to medical institutions and pharmacies via pharmaceutical wholesalers. Approximately 13,000 front-line personnel monitor all the needs of about 250,000 medical institutions and pharmacies in order to deliver roughly 19,000 types of drugs to every corner of the nation. This industrial structure achieves the world's lowest social costs and sustains Japan's healthcare system.

Furthermore, even amid frequent natural disasters and pandemics, pharmaceutical wholesalers play a pivotal role in ensuring continuity of healthcare in Japan with strong commitment to uninterrupted drug supply and putting advanced BCP (Business Continuity Plan) compliant equipment in place.

Managing the distribution data for these pharmaceuticals is essential for ensuring stable supply in normal times and for enabling swift emergency responses in face of frequent crises. In other words, this integrated distribution data embodies the front-line personnel’s sense of mission and valuable work.

Driven by such mission and purpose, pharmaceutical wholesalers nationwide and CRECON Research & Consulting jointly established Encise Inc. in 2012, a globally unprecedented business entity. Encise leverages the database covering over 99% of nationwide pharmaceutical distribution data to ensure the stable supply of pharmaceuticals, improve patient access to healthcare, and enhance productivity for pharmaceutical companies. The company visualizes the daily operations of pharmaceutical wholesalers as “valuable information,” by which it enhances the advancement of healthcare society.

Concurrently, pharmaceutical and medical device technologies have been evolving at an accelerating pace, driven by the penetration of biopharmaceuticals and the emergence of regenerative medicine products. On the other hand, social security expenditures rose steadily due to declining birthrate and aging population. The time has changed. We seek to strike a balance between rewarding innovation and optimizing healthcare expenditures, that is, the focus shifted toward cost-effectiveness. To address these growing needs, CRECON Medical Assessment Inc. was established in 2014 through the full-scale commercialization of the pharmacoeconomic analysis division that has been developed over many years at CRECON Research & Consulting. A specialized team of health economics researchers was organized, which utilizes statistical analysis and simulation techniques to objectively analyze, evaluate, and demonstrate the value of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and healthcare products. This work is instrumental in supporting the determination of appropriate reimbursement prices and the visualization of disease burden.

Today, the healthcare landscape is entering a new era of “personalized medicine,” encompassing biopharmaceuticals and regenerative medicine products. Crecon Genomics Inc. was established in 2023 to advance next-generation healthcare by leveraging genomic data analysis (bioinformatics) and novel diagnostic methods.

Crecon Genomics aims to realize a society where early disease detection and timely access to advanced healthcare connect individuals in need to sophisticated genomic analysis and personalized medicine.

Our exploration of information, which started from CRECON Research & Consulting, has evolved through several transformative stages: MEDICODE's standardization, Encise's value creation, CRECON Medical Assessment's proof of value, and Crecon Genomics' personalized medicine.

Guided by the shared philosophy of “contributing to a sustainable healthcare society,” our group companies enhance their expertise and organically collaborate with each other. This is the essence of CRECON Group and our power to pioneer the future.