Sun Pharmaceutical bullish on Japanese market as peers lose interest

Most Indian players have exited Japan over the past decade. Ranbaxy was one of the early entrants.

India’s largest drugmaker, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, is expanding in the Japanese market when most of its peers have indicated they are not bullish on it. 

Mumbai-based Lupin is Japan’s sixth-largest drug generics player but it recently said the annual price cuts imposed there had made the market unattractive. It would continue to grow there but only in single digit (in value terms). 

There were also reports that Lupin was looking at selling its Japanese subsidiary, Kyowa. The company did not confirm any such development but it had earlier this year divested the Japanese injectables business to Neo ALA Co, wholly