NEW YORK—Pfizer Inc. and Mylan Inc. have announced thesigning of a definitive agreement that will establish a long-term strategiccollaboration to develop, manufacture, distribute and market generics in Japan.
"We are very excited to have the opportunity to bepartnering with Pfizer to build upon our existing assets and drive an evenstronger, more sustainable generics business in Japanone which will bewell-positioned to take advantage of anticipated growth in generic utilizationin this market and other significant growth opportunities," said HeatherBresch, CEO of Mylan, in a statement. "As a leading global biopharmaceuticalcompany and a leader in the Japanese market, we expect Pfizer will bringsignificant benefits to the collaboration, particularly in thecommercialization of products, and will complement the strengths of ourexisting Mylan business. With contributions from both companies, we believe thecollaboration will result in a powerful generics platform that we believe willbe a leader in Japan in terms of scale, scope and quality."
Per the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will be responsiblefor commercializing the generics portfolio and managing the combined sales andmarketing effort. Mylan will be responsible for managing operations, includingresearch and development and manufacturing. The two companies will continue tooperate independent business entities in Japan, but will also continue tocollaborate on current and future generic products. Pfizer and Mylan will sharethe costs and profits related to the collaboration, but specific transactiondetails, including financial terms, were not disclosed.
"We are pleased with the opportunity to collaboratewith Mylan to meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality generics in Japan.We believe this collaboration will enable both companies to effectively buildupon each other's core capabilities to help meet the needs of more patients andcustomers in Japan than ever before," Albert Bourla, president and generalmanager of Pfizer's Established Products Business Unit, said in a pressrelease. "Over the past 59 years, Pfizer Japan has built trust withpatients and customers, and developed a very strong Pfizer brand. We arecommitted to delivering high quality medicines and believe this agreement willhelp us accelerate our ability to achieve our vision: Transform the JapaneseHealthcare Environment with Established Products by 2020."
The collaborative effort will focus on a portfolio of morethan 350 marketed products encompassing a variety of therapeutic areas, inaddition to more than 125 products currently in development. Current agreementterms state that any products included in the collaboration will be sold underthe Pfizer brand with joint labeling.
"We expect the collaboration with Pfizer to enhance thecontribution of Japan to our overall business in the near- and long-term andprovide exciting opportunities to our employees across all areas of thebusiness in Japan," said Bresch. "Importantly, by accelerating our growth andpenetration in Japan, this collaboration will bring Mylan another step forwardtowards achieving our mission of providing high-quality medicine to the world's7 billion people."
Japan represents the second-largest pharmaceutical marketglobally, after the United States, and its generic retail prescription market(sixth largest worldwide) brought in sales of approximately $5.2 billion lastyear, according to IMS Healthcare's Market Prognosis, 2012. The Japanesegovernment plans to expand the country's volume of generic usage from itscurrent level of approximately 24 percent to 30 percent by the end of thisyear. Pfizer presence in Japan consists of Pfizer Japan Inc., while Mylan'spresence takes the form of its subsidiary Mylan Seiyaku.
