Wyeth ‘set to target Japanese market’

Wyeth is reportedly set to launch an offensive on the world’s second largest drugs market, Japan, as it seeks the approval of six drugs.

Robert Ruffolo, Wyeth’s head of research and development, told Reuters that the company was engaging in more clinical trials in Japan and added that the improving regulatory environment over there was making new drug development easier.

He said: “While many large pharmaceutical companies, including Japanese companies, are leaving Japan and doing clinical trials elsewhere, we are not. We are doing the opposite.”

“With a new regulatory agency, we see some changes in a positive direction,” he concluded.

He remarked that the company intends to introduce six new drugs in Japan, including Efexor, its antidepressant.

Wyeth is the world’s ninth-largest pharmaceutical company in the world, but in terms of sales it is ranked 35th in Japan, even though its market accounts for 11 per cent of the global market. The company aims to break into the top-20 pharmaceutical companies in Japan by 2010, according to Reuters.

Wyeth already has a long-standing relationship with Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda. In 1953 Takeda and the American Cyanamid Company set up Lederle, which has now become Wyeth K.K., the Wyeth’s Japanese unit. Takeda still holds a 20 per cent stake in Wyeth K.K.

Takeda and Wyeth co-market Embrel in Japan, the arthritis drug marketed by Wyeth and Amgen elsewhere.

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