Teva targets Japanese market, says CEO

The world's biggest generic drugmaker, Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is eager to increase its Japanese market share, Shlomo Yanai, the firm's chief executive, told the UK Financial Times.

Mr Yanai told the FT that, "right now, Japan is more ripe for generics...but difficult to break into. We see it as a very important market." He considers Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo's recent takeover bid for Indian generic firm Ranbaxy to come from a desire to attract generic expertise into its domestic market. He says his own company's reputation for high-quality generics will offset Japanese prejudices against copy-drugs, and that "a joint venture with a company with position in the market is definitely the prefered option." Mr Yanai also noted that the copy-cat firm was interested in moving into central and eastern Europe, but placed the Indian market as a low priority.

Teva currently plans to double the size of its business on the success of its generics, but Mr Yanai says that one-fifth of this will remain focused on innovative drugs such as Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) and the pipeline Parkinson's disease treatment Azilect (rasagiline), despite his remaining critical of western drugmakers who have moved into generics. He told the FT that such diversity requires firms to split into "very separate structures."