Tokyo stocks to January 7, 2008

Tokyo extended its loss in the week to January 7 (two trading days only because January 1 through 3 were New Year holidays in Japan). The Nikkei 225 fell 5.3% to close at the 14,500 level, significantly below the critical 15,000 mark. The Topix index was down 5.6%. The market opened the New Year with a 4.0% daily decline, the steepest setback for a year-start session in history, due to the fall of New York markets, the yen's appreciation, the continuing rise in crude oil prices and concerns about prospects of the global economy. Hardest hit were export-oriented stocks. The pharmaceutical index was down 3.7%, outperforming the market.

Astellas declined 5.3%, without responding to a report that its partner, USA-based Theravance, had received notice from the Food and Drug Administration that the agency's Anti-infective Drugs Advisory Committee may soon meet to review the New Drug Application of telavancin, their co-developed antibiotic for complicated skin and skin structure infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Takeda lost 4.0%, despite TAP Pharmaceutical Products, its joint venture with US health care major Abbott Laboratories, submitting a New Drug Application to the FDA of the anti-ulcer agent TAK-390MR, a modified-release formulation of the proton pump inhibitor dexlansoprazole (see page 23). The drug is indicated for the treatment and maintenance of erosive esophagitis and non-erosive reflux disease. The share performance was not aided either by the announcement that its US subsidiary had filed a New Drug Application with the FDA for the anti-diabetes drug alogliptin (SYR-322), a selective dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor discovered by Takeda San Diego. The submission was based on six Phase III clinical trials involving more than 2,000 subjects conducted in global 220 sites. The studies examined safety and efficacy of alogliptin as a monotherapy and an add-on therapy to other anti-diabetic treatments, including sulfonylureas, metformin, thiazolidinediones and insulin.