Profit drop for Taisho, but firm sees recovery

Japan's Taisho Pharmaceutical's profit plummeted 65% year-on-year for fiscal 2008, due to goodwill amortization, but the company predict a  dramatic recovery in 2009.

The firm's net income was 8.82 billion yen ($90.8 million), versus 11.93  billion yen. Turnover was up 3% to 256.21 billion yen. Pharmaceutical  sales declined 2% to 95.0 billion yen thought sales of "ethical drugs"  increased 3% to 84.7 billion yen.

Many of the company's products suffered setbacks due to Japanese  National Health Insurance price cuts. Macrolide antibiotic Clarith  (clarithromycin) fell 6% to 24.0 billion yen, while sales of  periphal-circulation improvement agent Palux (alprostadil) decreased 2%  to 11.2 billion yen and Penticillin (piperacillin), an injectable  penicillin, plummeted 11% to 5.5 billion yen.