Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., the Japanese unit of Roche Holding AG, said first-quarter profit fell 50 percent from a year earlier because of a drop in sales of Tamiflu and Epogin, two of its three best-selling medicines.
Net income fell to ¥6.7 billion in the three months ended March 31, from ¥13.3 billion a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said. Sales fell 27 percent to ¥66.2 billion, Chugai said.
Chugai raised its full-year forecast for profit 71 percent to ¥29 billion from ¥17 billion and for sales 2.4 percent to ¥335 billion.
SkyePharma drug
SkyePharma PLC, the U.K. drugmaker that develops longer-lasting versions of older medicines, will work with Kyorin Co. to sell its Flutiform asthma treatment on the Japanese market.
SkyePharma will receive development and approval milestones worth "several millions of pounds plus a high mid-single digit royalty" on sales, the London-based company said Tuesday.
Tokyo-based Kyorin will pay development and approval costs. Development will take "several years," SkyePharma announced in a statement.
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