Dainippon Sumitomo debuts three-year plan

Japanese drugmaker Dainippon Sumitomo expects to establish an independent marketing organization for its schizophrenia drug lurasidone (SM-13496) in the USA after 2010, its president, Kenjiro Miyatake, told a press conference in Tokyo announcing the firm's mid-term management plan for 2007 through 2008. He told journalists that the company "cannot expect our corporate growth in the domestic market from now on," so it is indispensable to expand overseas.

According to the plan, the company will concentrate its resources on four strategic products such as Amlodin (amlodipine), a calcium-antagonist (sales goal in 2009: 58.0 billion yen; $481.4 million), Gasmotin (mosapride citrate), a gastrointestinal prokinetic agent (aiming for 28.0 billion yen turnover), Prorenal (limaprost alfadex), a prostaglandin E1 derivative (18.0 billion yen) and Meropen (meropenem trihydrate), a carbapenem antibiotic (16.0 billion yen) to maximize their capacity in domestic market, and shorten the time to reach peak sales of newly launched products and conduct product life cycle management properly.

During the term of the plan, the company says it wants to prepare for marketing its own products in the USA by spending 50%-70% of 30.0 billion yen as a strategic investment in establishing the marketing system in the USA and obtaining of approvals overseas. Lurasidone, which is now under Phase II development in the USA, will be launched around 2012.