Japan's generics sales up 2.9%, but slowing

Turnover of generic drugs in Japan for the 2007 fiscal year were worth 360.0 billion yen ($3.31 billion), a rise of 2.9% on the prior 12 months, but the advance was much lower than the 13% increase registered then, reports the Nikkei Weekly. Slower growth is forecast for this year.

The country's four leading copy drugmakers boosted their combined market share by 1.6 percentage points to 34.8%, achieving this by exploiting their brand name recognition through aggressive advertising campaigns, including on television, the newspaper noted.

Sector leader Sawai Pharmaceuticals lifted its generics market share 0.6 points to 10.4%, Towa Pharmaceuticals raised its percentage 0.3 points to 8.7%, third in line Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry achieved an 8.0% share, up 0.2 points, and Nichi-Iko registered 7.7%, up 0.5 points.