But as the environment gets easier, overseas groups are avoiding alliances and seeking to sell drugs through their own subsidiaries. Pharmacia, for example, has taken back Genotropin, its growth hormone, from Sumitomo and has renegotiated its co-marketing arrangement with Yamanouchi to give it a greater share of earnings from Celebrex, its arthritis drug. As foreigners encroach, the more inward-looking Japanese companies may get squeezed. That's why so many companies like Takeda, Yamanouchi, Sankyo, Eisai and Chugai are keen to expand their business outside Japan. Yet tales of the demise of Japan's pharmaceutical companies can be overdone.
People like to say only the strongest are going to survive.
It's become a cliche. But in this industry, the weak ones can survive for a long time.