Good Japanese Interim Results, Despite Price Cuts

Major pharmaceutical manufacturers in Japan generally turned in satisfactory sales growth for the first half of the current fiscal year to September 1996, and better-than-expected profits, despite the Japanese government-mandated price cuts.

Figures for the leading 10 companies (in terms of sales), and their forecasts for the full year, are shown in the table below, and more will be published next week. For easy reference, as the Marketletter was going to press the value of the yen was 115.4 = US $.

Banyu, a subsidiary of US company Merck & Co, says that sales of its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipovas (simvastatin) were up strongly, while those of antihypertensives were also steady. With the introduction of new products, the cost/sales ratio and SG&A costs are expected to improve.