Takeda's 3rd quarter profits hit by in-licensing costs and sales declines for Actos and Prevacid

Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda posted results for the nine months ended December 31, 2009, reporting its first profit drop in five quarters on the cost of acquiring developmental drugs to replace declining sales of its blockbuster diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone) and gastrointestinal Prevacid (lansoprazole).

Net income fell 28% to 69.5 billion yen ($769 million) and sales dipped 5.8% to 372.5 billion yen in the third quarter ended December 31. For the nine months, net revenues were down 6-2% to 1,127.9 billion. While gross profit decreased 6.9% to 913.3 billion yen, operating income saw an increase due to the significant decrease of selling and general administrative expense, mainly R&D expense, by 184.5 billion yen (24.9%).

Sales of Actos declined 1.9% to 292.1 billion yen in the nine months because of the stronger yen, said Takeda, which earns more than half of its revenue overseas. Turnover of Prevacid dropped 20% to 180.2 billion yen on generic drug competition.