Takeda reigns supreme among Japanese pharma companies

Modest growth rates of 2007 sales by on average 3.2 % YoY reflects challenges imposed by the health care system and an aging product portfolio

Barcelona, Spain | September 10, 2008 | The Business Intelligence firm La Merie S.L. conducted an analysis to compare and rank Japanese pharmaceutical companies regarding sales, net income, R&D expenses and biologics sales in the fiscal year 2007, ended March 31 2008. The study revealed the supremacy of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co over Japanese fellow pharma companies. Takeda not only posted record sales of US$ 12.5 bln in 2007, but also received top net income in absolute figures (US$ 3.3 bln) and as a percentage of sales (26.4 %). The Japanese pharma 2007 league is composed of four companies in the group of sales between US$ 6 and 12 bln, three companies in the group between US$ 2 and 6 bln, eight in the group of US$ 1 to 2 bln. The remainder of more than 12 companies had 2007 pharma sales of less than US$ 1 bln. The mean year-over-year growth rate was 3.2 % with only Kyowa Hakko posting a double digit sales growth in 2007 over the previous year. Only nine of the analyzed Japanese pharma companies had a net income of more than 10 % of pharma sales. Average R&D expenses of Japanese pharmaceutical companies were 15.7 % of sales. Chugai was the pharma company with the most recombinant biologic products and the highest biologics sales of a Japanese pharmaceutical company in 2007 (US$ 1.29 bln), but Kirin had the highest percentage of biologics sales (83 %) of total pharma sales. The combination of the pharma businesses of Kyowa Hakko and Kirin in 2008 ranked the new organization no.10 on a pro forma basis. These results and more were found in the search conducted by La Merie Business Intelligence. A free copy of the evaluation can be downloaded at La Merie’s News portal (www.pipelinereview.com).

The report contains a compilation of the raw data for 2007 financial figures published by Japanese pharmaceutical companies and the sources from which they were retrieved. A total of 27 Japanese companies with pharmaceutical activities were analyzed. Excluded were those Japanese pharmaceutical companies which did not publish in English. Ranking lists were established for total sales of Japanese companies with a pharmaceutical Business, pharma specific sales of Japanese companies, the net income, R&D expenses and sales of biologics. The latter three ranking lists were established for absolute figures (US$) and as a percentage of sales.

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