According to La Merie Business Intelligence, the top five Japanese pharmaceutical companies in terms of 2007 total sales were: Takeda Pharmaceutical ($12.5 billion), Astellas Pharma ($9.0 billion), Daiichi Sankyo ($8.2 billion), Eisai ($6.8 billion) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical ($3.8 billion). The only firms among the top 20 with sales declines last year were Daiichi Sankyo (-5.3%), […]

Despite rising costs, India will continue to be a popular site for offshore R&D, according to consulting firm Zinnov, which conducted interviews with 120 foreign R&D centers in India. The offshore R&D industry is worth $9.35 billion, is growing 23% annually and is forecasted to be $21.4 billion by 2012. Multinational corporations are fueling the […]

Korea’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has announced the “577 Initiative,” under which the government plans to increase R&D funding to 5% of GDP within five years to make the country one of the seven science and technology leaders worldwide. Seven industries will be targeted, including semiconductors, automobiles and machinery. In addition, health care […]

Total R&D spending in Israel increased 7.2% in 2007 in constant prices to NIS 31.5 billion ($8.7 billion), or 4.7% of GDP. R&D spending by the business sector represented 79% of all R&D expenditures last year and rose 8.9%. Government R&D spending grew 4.2% and accounted for 5% of spending, while R&D expenditures by nonprofit […]

New nutrition labeling laws for Hong Kong will take effect on July 1, 2010. The laws require that prepackaged food sold in the territory be labeled for energy, protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, trans fast, sodium and sugars. Hong Kong will become the only market with such requirements, which are more strict than Codex proposals. […]

The Russian government plans to spend $2.7 billion by 2015 to revitalize the country’s chemicals industry. The Industry and Trade Ministry program will produce 200 projects in the chemicals sector and 10,000 new jobs. Closely linked to the 2007–2015 State Armament Program, the funding will primarily go toward the development and production of carbon-fiber composites, […]

The outsourcing of drug development and manufacturing to India and China by US companies is escalating because of the high rate of patent expirations. The weak US dollar is also causing foreign investors to pull their money out of India and, in turn, weaken the rupee. India’s larger pharmaceutical companies are reaping the inadvertent benefits […]

According to a survey of 255 companies conducted by Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Shimbun and published in July, R&D investment by Japan’s private sector totaled JPY 12.5 trillion ($113.16 billion), a 6.9% increase. Of the companies surveyed, 32.9% plan to increase R&D spending by more than 10% within the next five years. Fifty-five percent of […]

Growth for India’s biotech sector has decelerated from the compound annual growth rate of 34% in the past five years to a 20% rate for 2007–2008, recording nearly $2.5 billion in revenues, according to a survey by the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises and Biospectrum magazine. The biotech sector is divided into five segments: biopharma, […]

According to the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), EU chemical production will increase 2.0% in both 2008 and 2009, following 2007 growth of 2.1%. Production of six subsectors (pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, consumer chemicals, chemicals, basic inorganics and specialty chemicals) is set to either remain the same or increase in 2009, excluding polymers, for which output is […]