Towa Lines Up More Launches
First-Half Sales Miss Target, But Profit Jumps By Half
Executive Summary
Towa has announced plans to launch two new products in December 2019, after the Japanese company reported an increase in sales in its financial first half due to recently-launched products.
Japan’s Towa has set out plans to launch two more new products before the end of the year, after new product launches helped to raise its sales in its financial first half ended 30 September 2019.
The two products that Towa plans to launch in December are rivals to MSD’s Nasonex (mometasone) 50μg metered-dose nasal spray in 56- and 112-spray presentations for treating allergic rhinitis, as well as risedronate 75mg tablets that will compete with Eisai’s Actonel and Takeda’s Benet osteoporosis treatments.
Reporting its results for the second quarter of the financial year ending March 2020, Towa saw sales growth of 12.6% to ¥55.35bn ($508m). According to Towa, “sales of products launched in 2018 increased significantly” – contributing ¥2.7bn of turnover – “and sales of products launched in other years also increased.”
However, acknowledging that it had set a first-half sales target of ¥58.0bn, Towa said this was “slightly not achieved due to less impact by increase in the consumption tax rate than the plan.”
Operating Profit Leaps By Over Half
Meanwhile, Towa’s operating profit jumped by more than half – 55.6% – to ¥9.22bn, thanks to a decline in cost of goods sold. This far exceeded the firm’s ¥8.50bn first-half target.
For its full financial year, Towa expects to achieve operating profit of ¥14.5bn on sales of ¥111.0bn.
Sales through wholesalers jumped up to 25.6% of Towa’s total, compared to 20.2% in the prior-year period. The firm said sales through this channel had “increased steadily [due to] good cooperation with wholesalers,” while direct sales slipped slightly as a proportion of the whole to 47.3%. Sales through agents were fairly steady at 22.0%.
In June this year, Towa launched generic rivals to a major cancer drug, Chugai’s Xeloda (capecitabine) 300mg tablets, as well as a major antipsychotic brand, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma’s Lonasen (blonanserin) antipsychotic tablets in 2mg, 4mg and 8mg strengths, as it reported a 12.5% jump in sales to ¥105.1bn for the financial year to March 2019. (Also see "Japan’s Towa Plans Four New Launches In June" - Generics Bulletin, 31 May, 2019.)