Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has posted strong earnings for the first quarter ended June 30, though sales of its major products all declined due to the strength of the yen.
Net income reached 112.59 billion yen, about $1.20 billion, compared with just 2.50 billion yen in the like,
year-earlier period. However, the latter included costs related to its acquisition of the USA’s Millennium Pharmaceuticals and the conclusion of its TAP Pharmaceutical Products joint venture with Abbott Laboratories.
Sales fell 4.5% to 378.98 billion yen and Takeda’s biggest earner, the
diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone), brought in 96.40 billion yen, down 6.6%. The gastrointestinal drug Prevacid/Takepron (lansoprazole) decreased 2.6% to 70.50 billion yen.
Sales of the blood pressure drug Blopress (candesartan cilexetil) were down 5.5% to 56.60 billion yen, while turnover f
rom the prostate cancer treatment Leuplin (leuprorelin) fell 7.5% to 30.20 billion yen.
Staying in Japan, and the country’s third-largest drugmaker, Daiichi Sankyo, posted a net loss of 6.44 billion yen, down from net income of 25.08 billion for the first quarter last year. The decl
ine was due to the effects of the firm’s purchase of a controlling stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories.
Sales were up 11% to 227.12 billion yen, driven by the antihypertensive Benicar/Olmetec (olmesartan), while the contribution from Ranbaxy was 29.6 billion yen.
Last but not least, Eis
ai, Japan’s fourth-largest drugmaker noted that the strong yen hit net income which fell 1.7% to 16.35 billion yen. Sales slipped just 0.6% to 194.67 billion yen.
Growth was driven by Aricept (donepezil) for Alzheimer’s disease, though sales of Aciphex (rabeprazole), a proton pump inhibitor sold as Pariet in Japan, declined as a result of generic competition.
