Ferring building up Japan commercial presence
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Ferringexpects Japan to generate 10% of its total annual sales within the next 10 years, helped by new products and an expansion of in-house sales and marketing activities in this key market.
Ferringexpects Japan to generate 10% of its total annual sales within the next 10 years, helped by new products and an expansion of in-house sales and marketing activities in this key market.
The target forms part of a wider corporate plan which envisages group revenues rising by an average of 10% a year to €2 billion by 2017, group chief operating officer Michael Pettigrew told a media briefing in Tokyo. The Swiss firm's total sales were around €800 million last year, and in-market sales of licensed products in Japan are now around ¥25 billion ($233.2 million/€148.4 million).
Aaron Graff, Ferring Pharmaceuticals' senior vice-president, Asia and global marketing, noted that while the company's products had been available in Japan for nearly 30 years, sales had so far been conducted through partners. These include Nisshin Kyorin for the gastrointestinal product Pentasa (mesalazine), Kyowa Hakko for desmopressin and JCR Pharmaceuticals for Growject (human growth hormone).
Ferring was now looking to its local subsidiary, set up in 2001, to commercialise its pipeline in Japan, although new partnerships would also be pursued to accelerate its business presence, Mr Graff said. Operations at Ferring Japan have so far been limited mostly to clinical development and regulatory affairs, but the operation began co-promoting desmopressin to selected geographic areas and facilities this month.
In line with the share of global sales goal, he said the aim was to build an operation with sales of at least ¥30 billion by 2017, with a continuing emphasis on infertility and urology. Near-term launches include the human menopausal gonadotropin product Menopur, which is used to induce ovulation and should reach the market this month, said Mark Noggle, the company's country president.
Further back in the pipeline, the novel prostate cancer therapy degarelix is in Phase II clinical trials in Japan with partner Astellas, and the vasopressin analogue Glypressin (terlipressin) is in development for hepatorenal syndrome. Degarelix, a GnRH antagonist, was filed in the US and EU earlier this year (Scrip No 3345, p19).