Takeda posts net profit leap of 22.8%, but hit by US lawsuits over Lupron

Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda Chemical Industries has posted netprofits of 146.86 billion yen ($1.19 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, an increase of 22.8% compared with the previous year. Sales were up 4.4% to 963 billion yen, helped by domestic growth for its diabetes treatment Actos (rosiglitazone), the antihypertensive Blopress (candesartan) and the lipid-lowerer Certa (cerivastatin). Actos sold well outside Japan, as did the antiulcerant Prevacid (lansoprazole).

However, the healthy results, which represented the seventh consecutive year of profit growth for the firm, were overshadowed by news of a US class-action lawsuit filed against Takeda, Abbott Laboratories and their 50:50 US joint venture TAP Pharmaceuticals over the prostate cancer drug Leupron (leuprorelin). The US Department of Justice is also investigating claims that TAP engaged in illegal inflation of the average wholesale price of Lupron to Medicare (Marketletters passim).

The lawsuit has been filed by senior citizens who claim that free samples of the drug were given to medical providers, with the instruction that they should bill Medicare for their treatments.