Japan's drug output grew 4.4% in 2005

Japan's pharmaceutical products output for 2005 grew 4.4% compared with the previous year to 6,390.0 billion yen ($54.21 billion), according to figures compiled by the country's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Although prescription drug production progressed 5.5% to 5,743.1 billion yen, the overall performance was slowed down by the 4% fall in over-the-counter product sales to 611.5 billion yen.

By therapeutic category, cardiovascular drugs was the largest, with 1,304.1 billion yen, or 20.4% of the total market. Metabolic drugs followed on 630.5 billion yen, accounting for 9.9% of the total.