Santen Pharmaceutical Co, the Japanese maker of eye-care products, which opened an office in Geneva, Switzerland, this month as part of a push outside its home market, is counting on a mix of takeovers and innovation to become one of the world’s top three suppliers of vision drugs, chief executive officer Akira Kurokawa said in an interview.
“We’re a financially very healthy company, so we can be aggressive, but more important for us is to provide better products, better treatments to patients,” Kurokawa said.
Santen’s products include Ikervis for dry eyes and Tapros for glaucoma, and the company had ¥65.9 billion (US$550 million) in cash and equivalents in a March 31 filing.
The Osaka-based drugmaker is focusing its research on eye disorders related to population aging, as well as new antibiotics. The stock has gained 42 percent this year.
Santen last year paid Merck & Co US$600 million to gain marketing rights for a clutch of eye treatments that would help it increase sales outside of Japan to as much as half of the total by 2020, up from 18 percent last year, according to Kurokawa.
Europe would be a key market for growth, where Santen aims to more than triple sales to more than 300 million euros (US$337 million), he said.
The company ranks fifth in the global eye-care market behind Novartis AG’s Alcon unit, Allergan PLC, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc and Pfizer Inc, Kurokawa said.
Santen aims to break into the top three by 2020, he said.
The company is also looking to grow through research and development. It is increasing investment in research to an average of 15 percent of sales from about 12 percent now, he said.
Santen in March won permission to sell Ikervis — a treatment for patients with dry-eye disease — in the EU.
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