Takeda achieves net sales growth in full-year 2012

Takeda has announced its financial results for its 2012 business year, during which it generated a net sales total of 1.56 trillion yen (9.97 billion pounds).

This represented a year-on-year increase of 3.2 percent, thanks to the positive impact the acquisition of Nycomed has had on its emerging market capabilities, as well as the successful launch of several new products.

Drugs such as Nesina, Reminyl, Azilva, Dexilant and Uloric sold strongly enough to offset falling sales for Actos due to generic competition, while strategic investments have also been made to expand and strengthen Takeda's research and development pipeline.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, president and chief executive officer of Takeda, said: "Our improved marketing strategy, extensive late-stage pipeline and overall efforts will make Takeda's operating model robust and efficient as a world-class pharmaceutical company."

This comes in the same week that the firm announced the takeover of Inviragen, a US-based developer of innovative vaccine therapies for emerging infectious diseases.