TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical said on Thursday its first-quarter profit rose 12% from a year earlier, citing momentum in its growth and the launching of new products.
Operating profit was 168.6 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the three months through June 30, the drugmaker said, compared with 150.5 billion yen a year earlier. That compared with an average forecast of 150.7 billion yen from six analysts polled by Refinitiv.
The company held its forecast for full-year operating profit at 349 billion yen. Analysts expect 481.1 billion yen on average for the year.
Japan’s biggest pharmaceutical company in May flagged that profit would likely decline this fiscal year as mainstay drugs lose patent protection and it works to replenish its development pipeline.
Takeda agreed in December to buy an experimental psoriasis drug from U.S.-based Nimbus Therapeutics for as much as $6 billion, marking its first major purchase since its $59 billion takeover of Shire Plc in 2019.
The company said it expects eight key regulatory decisions by the end of the fiscal year.
($1 = 140.2200 yen)
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Tom Hogue)
