JAPANESE FIRST-HALF RESULTS AND FORECASTS

Among Japanese pharmaceutical companies reporting results for the first six months of the fiscal year ending March 1994 are the following:

Daiichi Pharmaceutical said sales at 104.28 billion yen ($961.8 million) rose 2.3% on the comparable year-earlier period, while operating profit rose 4.3% to 17.34 billion yen and ordinary profit was up 1.8% at 19.45 billion yen. The company's capital investment amounted to 5.3 billion yen and R&D spending was 12.1 billion yen. Prescription drug sales improved 4.3% to 86.33 billion yen, helped by strong growth for Tarivid (ofloxacin), Omnipaque (iohexol), Panaldine (ticlopidine) and Feron (interferon alpha), while over-the-counter product sales increased 8.9% to 4.89 billion yen and veterinary drugs by 1.7% to 2.52 billion yen. The company's exports, however, declined 6.1% to 9.25 billion yen, due to the unfavorable effects of a strong yen. Full-year forecasts are for sales of 210.0 billion yen, operating profits of 34.0 billion yen and ordinary profits of 38.5 billion yen;

Dainippon Pharmaceuticals has increased its forecast for first-half fiscal 1994 operating profit upward from 3.0 billion yen to 3.7 billion yen, largely as a result of a 960 million ($8.8 million) yen dividend payment from its joint venture Dainabot. Ordinary profits are now forecast at 5.3 billion yen compared with 4 billion yen and net profits 80% higher at 2.7 billion yen, reports Pharma Japan. As well as the Dainabot payout, a decrease in the cost/sales ratio of a new quinolone antibiotic, Spara (sparfloxacin) contributed to higher profits. On a full year basis, sales of the product are expected to reach 7.5 billion yen;