Just after announcing a $6.8 billion takeover of Cephalon, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is reportedly buying Japanese generics drugmaker Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry.

The Nikkei newspaper says that the Israeli drugmaker will shell out 40 billion yen, or almost $500 million, to buy a majority stake in Japan's third-biggest generics group. Teva set up a Japanese unit in 2005 and established a generics joint venture with Kowa Co in September 2008.

The Nikkei claims that Teva is looking to mainly use Taiyo for production and the Teva-Kowa JV for sales in the 800 billion yen Japanese generics market.