Sumitomo Pharma Profits Down Sharply

Japan's Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals reported a 7.8% downturn in sales for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1994, at 220.36 billion yen ($3.38 billion), largely as a result of lower sales of the company's interferon alpha product Sumiferon (licensed from Wellcome). Interferon products were amongst the hardest hit by the last round of Japanese government-dictated price cuts (Marketletters passim), and Sumiferon turnover more than halved to 49 billion yen.

This in turn resulted in a sharp decline in the company's profitability, with ordinary profits down 58.0% to 15.03 billion yen and net profits 52.1% lower at 8.27 billion yen. Sumitomo is also suffering from the decision of two sales partners, Japan Upjohn and Zeneca Yakuhin, to go solo, but new drug introductions are expected to help the company recover, according to a report in Pharma Japan. Also noted by Pharma Japan is that the market for the sustained-release calcium antagonist Amlodin (amlodipine besilate), codeveloped with Pfizer, continues to grow.