Eisai Co., Japan's fourth-largest drugmaker, said it aims to double its sales force in India and boost production in China as government-mandated price cuts erode profit at home.

Eisai predicts overseas sales will expand 8 percent a year through 2011, four-times faster than the pace of its domestic sales of prescription medicines. This year, the government cut average prescription drug prices by 6.7 percent and will cut them again in two years to rein in ballooning health care costs.

Eisai wants to increase its staff in India to 210 from 80 within five years to promote its Alzheimer's disease treatment Aricept, as well as new drugs for hepatitis B, stomach cancer and ulcers that it plans to introduce, Ogoshi said. The company may triple manufacturing capacity in China, he said.

Asia is a growing market for Eisai, but it will require investment over the next five to six years with not much return in that period.

Source:佚名