
Teva. Started Japanese unit in 2005
Israel's
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has decided to buy Japan's third-largest generic drug company Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry for about $500 million, the Nikkei newspaper said last week.
Major Deal
Associated Press
Deal to give world's largest generic drug maker, based in Israel, a range of biotechnology drugs aimed at cancer and other conditions
Teva, the world's top generic drug maker, will likely take control of Taiyo by purchasing a majority stake from the founding family and other shareholders, it said.
Teva started a Japanese unit in 2005 and formed a generic drug joint venture, Teva-Kowa Pharma, with midtier Japanese pharmaceutical firm Kowa in 2008.
It appears that Teva is looking to mainly use Taiyo for production and Teva-Kowa for sales, the Nikkei said.
The roughly 800 billion yen ($9.85 billion) Japanese generic drug market accounts for about 20% of the overall domestic pharmaceutical market, considerably lower than the 50 percent or higher in the US and Europe, the Nikkei said.
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