(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Takeda Pharmaceutical Co expects to see a turnaround next fiscal year as new products bolster growth at Asia's largest drugmaker, which is forecast to post its second consecutive annual profit decline in the 12 months ending March.
"This year is an investment year. Next year, we should start to see sales growth and also profit growth, core earnings growth," chief operating officer Christophe Weber said in an interview in Singapore. "That's for us a turnaround that should happen." The company, based in Osaka, has been forced to seek new drugs to replace revenue generated from its blockbuster diabetes medicine Actos, which began facing generic competition in 2012.
The 233-year-old drugmaker in December named Sanofi's Andrew Plump as the next head of research and development as it pursues its search for new products.
Takeda hired Weber, a veteran of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, in April last year and plans to have him succeed Chief Executive Officer Yasuchika Hasegawa this year. In February, the company forecast a 39% drop in net income to ¥65bn ($548mn) for the 12 months ending March from a year earlier. In the prior year, profit dropped 28% to ¥106.7bn, its lowest in 15 years.
Takeda fell 0.5% to close at ¥6,105 in Tokyo trading on Friday. The stock has risen 25% over the past year, compared with a 22% gain for the broader Topix index.
The Japanese drugmaker has spent at least $20bn on acquisitions in recent years, buying Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc to expand in cancer therapies in 2008 and Nycomed in 2011 to grow in emerging markets.
At the moment, Takeda is focused on "organic agenda and growth," Weber said. "Regarding M&A, we are of course looking and scanning opportunities, but that's not our primary focus. We will be very financially disciplined if we are active." The company began selling its Entyvio treatment for ulcerative colitis last year. Takeda also has an experimental cancer drug called ixazomib in the last stage of patient studies before regulatory review.
Ixazomib is "an exciting asset for Takeda" and that combined with Entyvio and emerging markets should contribute to the company's growth for the next two to three years, Atsushi Seki, an analyst at Barclays Plc in Japan, said via e-mail.
For the "mid-term," the company is targeting mid-single digit growth in revenue, Weber said.
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