Japan stock market week to Dec 11, 2006

Tokyo saw a further advance in the week to December 11, helped by positive investor sentiment, the yen's weakness against the US dollar and strength of New York markets. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.4%, to close at the 16,500 level, while the Topix index ended 1.3% higher. The basic undertone of the market remained solid because investors expect that many Japanese companies are likely to report favorable earnings growth for the October-December 2006 quarter and could possibly revise upward their projections for the full year. The market temporarily turned lower mid-week as October machinery data were disappointing, with a 2.8% gain from the previous month against the consensus estimate of a 3-10% growth.

The pharmaceutical index advanced 1.6%, outperforming the market. Astellas rose 2.6% reflecting positive study data derived from the VENUS (Vesicare Efficacy and safety in patieNts with Urgency Study) trial of Vesicare (solifenacin succinate) for the treatment of overactive bladder. Data were presented at annual meeting of the International Continence Society. OAB patients treated with Vesicare demonstrated statistically-significant reductions in episodes of urgency. A secondary endpoint also demonstrated that subjects using Vesicare saw a statistically-significant increase in warning time (the first sensation of urgency to voiding) compared with patients taking placebo. Astellas forecasts that US sales of Vesicare will expand to $144.0 million in the fiscal year ending March 2007 from $68.0 million in the previous fiscal year. Japanese turnover of Vesicare (launched in June 2006) is forecast to be 5.3 billion yen ($45.0 million) in the current fiscal year. The company's share performance was also helped by its unveiling of "Vision 2015" as its management target. The company projects an increasingly stern operating environment due to further control of health expenditures and lower market growth rates, with the patent expiration of major compounds and expansion of generics, while it expects that the specialty market meeting unmet medical needs has a high growth potential. The company aims to implement its "Global Category Leader" business model in several areas of high unmet medical needs and continue to concentrate R&D efforts in six categories, including urology, inflammation/immunology, infectious diseases, neurology/pain control, diabetes and cancer. Strategies include ascertaining the progress of its current pipeline and undertaking in-licensing and business development activities.

Takeda was up 2.0% after it launched a new injectable formulation of the proton pump inhibitor antiulcer drug Takepron (lansoprazole) in Japan. The new Takepron IV 30mg was approved for bleeding associated with gastric, duodenal and acute stress ulcers and acute gastric mucosal lesion for patients who are unable to take the oral formulation.