Japanese multinational pharmaceutical companies have continued to show robust performances last year.

After going through the audit report of eight Japan-based multinational companies in Korea, Korea Biomedical Review found an average sales growth rate of 9.7 percent in 2017.

The eight companies are Astellas Korea, Takeda Korea, Eisai Korea, Otsuka Korea, Daiichi Sankyo Korea, Kyowa-Kirin Korea, Santen Korea and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Korea.

Although slightly lower than the 2016 sales growth of 10.7 percent on average, the sales increase of Japan pharmaceutical companies was noticeable, given Korean pharma companies recorded sales growth rate of a mere 5.9 percent during the same period.

Except for Otsuka Korea, the other seven Japanese companies registered higher sale growth compared with the figures in 2016, with four of them recording double-digit growth rates.

In particular, the sales of Santen Korea soared 30.1 percent from 2016 to 63.6 billion won ($56.5 million) last year, while Daiichi Sankyo Korea also saw turnover growth from 95.5 billion won to 119.4 billion won, up 25 percent, over the cited period.

Other companies enjoyed modest growth with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Korea growing 14.5 percent to 59.1 billion won, Eisai Korea, 13.7 percent to 173 billion won, Astellas Korea, 6.8 percent to 275.6 billion won, Takeda Korea, 7 percent to 202.8 billion won, and Kyowa-Kirin Korea, 3.7 percent to 65 billion.

Otsuka Korea was the only Japan pharmaceutical company which marked a sales decline in 2017, but the company topped the chart for operating profit last year, with 20.2 billion won, a 64 percent increase from 2016.

​​​​​Regarding net profit, Eisai Korea registered the most with 15.1 billion won last year, a drastic 78.3 percent increase from the previous year.

Some of the eight companies recorded losses in their operating and net profits, but sharp increases by the others resulted in the average operating and net profit growth rates of 21.7 and 21.3 percent, respectively, during the period.

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