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What kind of company gets a drug through the FDA? If you’re a Japanese company, it seems to help if your main business isn\u0092t prescription pharmaceuticals. <\/p>\nWhat kind of company gets a drug through the FDA? If you’re a Japanese company, it seems to help if your main business isn\u0092t prescription pharmaceuticals. <\/p>\n
Perusing the list of FDA new drug approvals<\/a> from Washington Analysis, we found four that originated in the labs of Japanese companies. A new drug for gout came from Teijin, a major textile maker. (Teijin licensed U.S. rights to Takeda.) <\/p>\n The Otsuka group of companies, best known in some circles as the maker of the Pocari Sweat sports drink, came up with approval for a niche product for certain patients with low sodium levels in plasma.<\/p>\n Then there’s Kowa, which won approval for a cholesterol-lowering statin called Livalo<\/a>. We\u0092re somewhat at a loss to describe its core business. Its Web site<\/a> mentions professional broadcasting equipment, apparel, textiles, home fashion, \u0093bioarchitectural research\u0094 and a few other areas in addition to medicines.<\/p>\n Less successful at getting drugs through the FDA were the pharmaceutical giants that spend billions of dollars each year for precisely that purpose. Pfizer and Merck were among the big names that struck out for the year. That\u0092s food for thought as the pharma industry tries to survive a wave of patent expirations and growth in U.S. prescription-drug spending slows sharply. <\/p>\n