Sawai Pharmaceutical commits $525 million to expand capacity

30 August 2015

Just as Japan’s government says it aims to increase use of generic drugs, domestic drugmaker Sawai Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4555) has revealed plans to invest 64 billion yen ($525 million) in capacity expansion in the three years through fiscal 2017 - an increase of 20 billion yen from the previous three years, reports the Nikkei Asean Review.

By fiscal 2017, generic drugs firm Sawai aims to increase annual production capacity to 15.5 billion pills from 10 billion. It has determined that 20 billion yen in additional investment is needed to be capable of turning out 18 billion pills a year by 2020.

Sawai’s planned expansion comes in response to new government policies announced by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare aimed at cutting medical expenses by increasing generic drugs' market share to 60% in fiscal 2017 and at least 80% early in the fiscal 2018-2020 timeframe (The Pharma Letter August 26).

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