Bayer Healthcare looks set to expand in Japan

Bayer Healthcare, through Japanese subsidiary Bayer Yakuhin and local marketing partners, expects to see good growth in Japan, Michael Portoff, senior Bayer representative for the region, told a press conference in Tokyo. Income from new prescription drugs will likely become a growth driver in Japan, where Bayer's other businesses such as chemical have a lesser potential, it was noted. The group's health care sub unit consists of six divisions - animal health, biological products, diabetes care, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals - and achieved 2004 turnover of 96.0 billion yen ($892.8 million), up around 1% on the previous year.

In the biologicals sector, the size of the plasma market inevitably contracted as a result of the enactment of the Japanese Law on Blood Products in July 2004, said Dr Portoff, adding that the Kogenate line of recombinant Factor VIII coagulation products continued to sell well.

Sales of the pharmaceuticals business increased steadily, despite further reductions in National Health Insurance drug prices, increases in patient insurance co-payments and other changes introduced ahead of the establishment of the new Pharmaceuticals Affairs Law. Among core products, cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) products, including Adalat (nifedipine), a treatment for hypertension and angina pectoris, oral antidiabetic Glucobay (acarabase) and Bayaspirin (aspirin), an anti-platelet agent, continued to achieve strong sales.