Japanese Market Sales Rank (2016) [1-2]
Total sales of Pharmaceutical companies in Japan
Although Takeda, Japan's most powerful pharmaceutical company, traces its roots back more than 200 years, its true rise began in the late 1980s. Takeda has dominated the ranking of Japanese pharmaceutical companies since 2005. In 2011-2012, takeda's sales were close to the top 10 in the world, at 15,100 yen and 1,557 billion yen respectively, equivalent to 19 billion and 19.5 billion dollars at the average exchange rate of the year. But as the yen fell, Takeda began to slide in the world rankings. Takeda's sales did not grow as fast as before 2012 and declined in 2016, as patents on popular drugs lansoprazole, pantoprazole and Candesartan expired and pioglitazone caused cancer. Takeda was ranked 18th in the world in 2016, with sales of about 16 billion US dollars.
In addition to Takeda, Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo, Otsuka and Eisai are also Japan's first echelon of pharmaceutical companies. Although they are among the world's top 30 drug companies by sales, they are "younger" than Takeda - with a shorter history and less resistant to the risks of a patent cliff. After 1990s, Astellas rose rapidly through a series of star drugs, its star products include Tamloxin, Tacrolimus, Solinazine and Micarfennet. Sankyo relies on levofloxacin, omesartan and Prasugrel, Otsuka on Aripiprazole, eisai on donepezil and rabeprazole... As the patents on these "cash cows" expire, their expansion has reached a plateau.
