JAPAN SUBSIDS DO WELL FOR MNCs

The Japanese subsidiaries of most multinational pharmaceutical companies saw improved performance in fiscal 1991, prior to the government-enforced reimbursement drug price cuts, according to a report in the Nikkei Weekly last week, which adds that analysts are suggesting that there is plenty of room for expansion.

Notable among the top pharmaceutical subsidiary companies in Japan were Roche and Pfizer, both of whom posted double-digit growth last year, as shown in the table below. *t Company Sales Change Yen bill on 1990 ---------------------------------------- Bayer Yakuhin 91.2 +7.8% Hoechst Japan 77.1 +3.6% Sandoz Pharma 75.4 -2.8% Nihon Schering 59.3 +6.5% Pfizer Pharma 57.5 +14.1% Ciba-Geigy (Japan) 50.5 +1.3% Nippon Glaxo 43.2 +4.3% ICI-Pharma 39.0 +4.3% Nippon Roche 37.0 +14.7% Lederle (Japan) 34.4 +0.3% ----------------------------------------- $t

Of these ten, only Sandoz saw a slight downturn in sales, which is attributed to the failure of the company to introduce any "promising" new products, and this "prevented it from effectively weathering the newly-adopted changes in the invoice-price system," the Nikkei comments. However, Sandoz is expected to show a substantial recovery by September 1994, when it completes its shift to direct sales and away from licensee Sankyo.