Do business in (not to) Japan

By P Reed Maurer

Forty-five years ago, Japan eliminated strict limits on the percentage ownership permitted for foreign pharma companies in Japan. The path was cleared for 100% ownership of a Japan entity, writes long-time Japan pharma watcher and president of International Alliances Limited P Reed Maurer in his exclusive column for The Pharma Letter.

Since then a generation of foreign executives have come and gone. And yet there are those who still consider Japan a type of black hole. They build businesses in Europe and the USA but approach Japan as a mysterious market best attacked by licensing out their drugs to local companies.