Daiichi Sankyo's Big Ambitions for Europe, Focus Reports
Release Date: 2010-09-23
A Japanese company, Daiichi Sankyo is aiming to expand their sales in overseas markets and become a ‘Global Pharma Innovator’. With their Pfaffenhofen manufacturing facilities and Martinsried-based Biotech Company, U3 Pharma, Germany is the main centre for the company’s European manufacturing and R&D operations. But have Germany’s moves towards more regulation and price cuts undermined the country as a market?By 31st March 2011, Daiichi Sankyo forecasts sales of over 100mn Euros in the DACH-region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), sales all over Europe should increase then by 10 percent to 629mn Euros. and the group is also investing 21% of its sales in R&D. Behind this drive is a desire to become less dependent on the Japanese market. While 45% of the group’s sales currently stem from markets outside Japan, by 2015 Daiichi Sankyo aims to raise this figure to over 60%.
Germany lies at the heart of the group’s plans for expansion. As Ralf Göddertz, Managing Director of DAIICHI SANKYO in Germany, Austria and Switzerland explains: ‘here is not only the headquarters of the whole continent, but also the only “global” manufacturing plant of the group in Europe’. Since Daiichi Sankyo acquired the Pfaffenhofen manufacturing plant in 1990, just north of Munich, it has provided a base to export to over fifty countries. In fact, 70% of Daiichi Sankyo’s European turnover is manufactured or handled in these that facilitiesy.
In terms of innovation, Germany provides a good environment for attracting high potentials, and the acquisition of U3 Pharma in 2008 has enabled the group to conduct successful research into new oncology compounds. Daiichi Sankyo’s is now branching out from its traditional growth drivers, including the hypertension drugs of their Olmesartan franchise, and the group is increasingly looking towards therapeutic approaches in the cardiovascular field, with a new alternative therapyies on the market for the reduction of thrombotic cardiovascular events. In order to fill the companies pipeline constantly with new drug candidates Daiichi Sankyo invests about 21 percent of its sales in R&D. For example, the costs for the current phase-III-studies of Edoxaban, a new oral factor Xa inhibitor, exceed 1bn Euros.
However, Daiichi Sankyo faces a difficult hurdle. With over twenty reforms in the German healthcare system in as many years, Germany’s dominant role in the European pharmaceutical market has declined. The trend towards more regulation and forced price cuts for ethical drugs could damage Daiichi Sankyo’s sales in Germany, the group’s second biggest market in Europe. Ralf Göddertz admits that ‘forced discounts for ethical drugs from 6 to 16% hit the German pharmaceutical industry once more and will have a significant impact even on DAIICHI SANKYO´s revenues’. Germany potentially provides a strong manufacturing platform for the company’s expansion, but as a market, much depends on future regulation.
Source: www.pharma.focusreports.net
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Focus Reports |
| Country: | Switzerland |