Teva sets up in Japan

Leading Israel-based drugs group Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is the third major to set up operations in Japan, aiming to take advantage of the still small but growing copy-cat drugs market there.

In March, Teva, which since its acquisition of US firm IVAX is the world's largest generics group (Marketletters passim), applied for approval to sell its products in Japan, with an eye to marketing drugs already available in the USA and Europe, reports the Nikkei Weekly. The firm plans to gradually expand its offerings, rolling out two injection products in 2007 and is set to hire sales and technical personnel for its Japanese subsidiary, according to the newspaper.

In Japan, generic drugs accounted for around 16% of prescription medicines sales by volume in fiscal 2003. The world's second-largest generics firm, Sandoz (a unit of Swiss drug major Novartis), and Germany-based Merck KGaA, which also has a substantial me-too drugs business, are also established in Japan, says the Nikkei.