Corporate Magazine 2012 - Boehringer Ingelheim

our marketsperspectives for established marketsBOEHRINGER INGELHEIM IN JAPANIn Japan, the company has atotal of 2,652 employees (meanheadcount 2012). In the 2012financial year, total turn over ofEUR 2.11 billion was generatedin the country.As a result of the acceleratedregistration process, pradaxa®(brand name in Japan prazaxa®)was launched on the Japanesemarket in 2011, a year earlierthan expected. trajenta® (trazenta®)was also introduced in2011.Japan is the largest market formicardis® in the BoehringerIngelheim group of companies.The product has been marketedfor over ten years in cooperationwith the company Astellas.Cooperations between westernand Japanese companies aremuch favoured and widespread.Japanese companies are therebyable to improve access to westerninnovations, while the westerncompanies receive valuablesupport on the Japanese market.yamagata3kobetokyo and naritaPromotion of genericsJapan has traditionally been a pharmaceuticalmarket with limited genericpenetration (around 20%). This ismainly attributable to the loyalty ofthe Japanese to branded medicines.In order to reduce state healthcare expenditure,generics are projected toaccount for a 30% share of the totalmarket for prescription medicines inthe coming years.The Japanese pharmaceutical marketnevertheless remains attractive for innovativeproducts and is expected tocontinue to grow. In 2010, the Chuikyo(Japan’s Central Social InsuranceMedical Council) on a test basis introduceda form of incentive scheme forpatent-protected products. Productsthat still have no generic equivalenton the market are exempted from theusual biannual price reductions. Thisleads to prices on the Japanese pharmaceuticalmarket being quite stablecompared with the trends in westerncountries.In order to remove the drug lag, i. e.the delayed registration of innovativemedicines on the Japanese marketwhich has lasted for years, various initiativeshave been taken. In the past,the Japanese authorities demandedextensive clinical data from participantsin studies in Japan. The cost wasin part excessively high for pharmaceuticalcompanies and the Japanesemarket was denied innovations on occasionsas a consequence. This situationhas improved somewhat in themeantime. Data are generated in westernpopulations now also more readilyaccepted in Japan.THERAPEUTIC AREASThe medicines with the largestturnover on the Japanese pharmaceuticalmarket are drugs to treatfor cardiovascular diseases. Insecond place are alimentary andmetabolic drugs.Japan – healthcare financing unclear 127