Lilly looks to crack Japanese market

Published: 17-Apr-2008

US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly plans to triple sales in Japan by 2015, quickly making new drugs available and putting the company in position to crack the top 15 in the local market.


US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly plans to triple sales in Japan by 2015, quickly making new drugs available and putting the company in position to crack the top 15 in the local market.

Although in the top 10 globally, Eli Lilly has failed to make the top 20 in Japan.

"An osteoporosis treatment and other new products for the elderly are expected to be marketed in Japan," said ceo John Lechleiter. "We aim to boost local sales to ¥270bn (Euro 1.66bn) in 2015, up 2.3 times from 2006."

Despite the 2011 patent expiration on its core drug Zyprexa, an antidepressant accounting for roughly a third of the firm's sales, Lechleiter sees sufficient candidates in the development pipeline to achieve this result. Eli Lilly seeks to introduce two new drugs a year from 2011 on a global basis.

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