Japanese 2007 drug production flat

Japan's drug production increased just 0.2% to 6,450.0 billion yen ($72.2 billion) in 2007 compared to the previous year, the Japanese  Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced recently.

Although the production value of prescription drugs rose 0.4% to  5,828.09 billion accounting for 90.3% of the total, over-the-counter and  household medicines fell 1.1% and 11.7% to 592.96 billion yen and 31.13  billion yen amounting to 9.2% and 0.5% of the total, respectively, the  figures showed.

Heart drugs head the list