Astellas, Takeda and Sankyo Pharma all release results

The Japanese trio of pharmaceutical firms Astellas, Takeda and Daiichi Sankyo have all released their results for the last nine months with healthy performances.

Takeda, Japan’s leading drug maker, reported a 24 per cent rise in profit for the last quarter of 2005 with gross profit for the last nine months up 9.2 per cent to 716.7 billion yen (?3.4 billion).

This represents 90 per cent of the expected profit for the year, with three months still remaining.

Astellas posted a profit rise of six per cent for the last nine months to 139 billion yen (?0.66 billion).

Sales for the last quarter were up just 1.8 per cent and net income was up 23.8 per cent.

Daiichi Sankyo, which was formed last year by the merger of Daiichi Pharmaceutical and Sankyo, had net sales for the last nine months of 704 billion yen (?3.3 billion), while net income was at 81 billion yen (?0.38 billion).

The performance was fuelled by good sales internationally of Olmetec (olmesartan medoxomil), the high blood pressure treatment.

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