Japan's generic growth attracts foreign firms

International pharmaceutical companies, including Swiss major Novartis, are increasingly attracted to the Japanese generic drugs market, which is expected to grow from less than 20% of the drugs market in 2005, to reach 25%-30% over the next three to five years.

Japanese generic firms fear Swiss invasion

The Japanese domestic generic manufacturers consider the arrival of larger foreign competitors as bad news. Nov-artis' subsidiary Sandoz, which is the world's second largest supplier of generic drugs worldwide, had global sales of about 550.0 billion yen ($4.62 billion). In contrast, Towa pharmaceutical, a leading Japanese generic maker had consolidated turnover of only 24.7 billion yen in the year to March 2005.