Sales Ranking and Performance Overview of Japan's Top 42 Pharmaceutical Companies

Recently, AnswersNews in Japan has compiled the annual performance data of 42 Japanese pharmaceutical companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (including the pharmaceutical businesses of companies whose main operations are not pharmaceuticals). The overall sales revenue of these 42 companies increased by 4.7% compared to last year, while operating profit rose by 0.2%. The rankings of the top eight companies remained unchanged from the previous year, namely Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Astellas Pharma Inc., Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited, Eisai Co., Ltd., Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd., and Tanabe Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation.

As a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited achieved annual sales exceeding 2 trillion yen for the first time, ranking first with 2,097.2 billion yen (approximately $19.3 billion), representing an 18.5% increase from the previous year. This growth was primarily driven by Takeda’s internationalization strategy and the consolidation of Shire’s performance from January to March following the acquisition. Additionally, several of Takeda’s key products demonstrated strong sales performance.

In second place was Astellas, with sales of ¥1.3063 trillion (approximately $12.1 billion), a slight increase from the previous year, driven by a 13.2% growth in sales of Xtandi (enzalutamide), a new drug for prostate cancer, which reached annual sales of ¥333.1 billion.

Ranked third is Otsuka Holdings, where the schizophrenia drug Rexulti and various new products in Japan sold well. The company’s sales reached JPY 129.19 billion (approximately USD 12 billion), representing a 4.2% increase from the previous year.

Below is the detailed ranking of 42 Japanese pharmaceutical companies:

Due to Japan’s drug price reforms and the expiration of patents on key products, the financial performance of several Japanese pharmaceutical companies declined in 2018, including Daiichi Sankyo (-3.2%), Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma (-1.6%), Tanabe Mitsubishi Pharma (-2.1%), and Kyowa Hakko Kirin (-1.9%).

In terms of operating profit, Astellas topped Japanese companies this year with an operating profit of JPY 243.9 billion, surpassing Takeda’s JPY 204.9 billion. The highest operating profit margins were recorded by Shionogi (38.1%), Ono Pharmaceutical (21.5%), and Chugai Pharmaceutical (21.4%), while those of Takeda, Otsuka, and Daiichi-Sankyo were all below 10%. Below is a distribution chart of sales revenue and profit margins for major Japanese pharmaceutical companies: