Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. on Thursday reported a decline in earnings for the first half through Sept. 30, blaming slack sales of its main products and tougher competition in the pharmaceutical market.
Daiichi Pharmaceutical said it chalked up a group pretax profit of 27.66 billion yen, down 21.4 percent from a year earlier, and a net profit of 13.5 billion yen, down 20.5 percent, on consolidated sales of 161.82 billion yen, down 1.9 percent.
The company said sales of its main products slipped in the April-September period, with sales in Japan of its Cravit antibacterial agent at 18.1 billion yen, down 1.7 billion yen.
For the full business year, the company forecasts a group pretax profit of 54 billion yen and a net profit of 27 billion yen on consolidated sales of 322 billion yen.