Japan's Sankyo to move OTC production

During fiscal 2003, Sankyo of Japan will close its over-the-countermedicines manufacturing plant in Sanzuoka Prefecture and transfer production, as well as some 80 employees, to its facility in Kanagawa Prefecture, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The move is part of the consolidation and streamlining of production that the company is implementing before the loss of patents for its cholesterol-lowering product Mevalotin (pravastatin), the newspaper said, noting that Sankyo plans to trim its manufacturing division work-force from 1,500 to 1,200 over the next five years.

The consolidation in Kanagawa will cost the firm about 1.5 billion yen ($2.9 million), the newspaper said, noting that Sankyo hopes to recover this by improving production efficiency for the transferred products by 30%.