US pharma deal set to boost sales for Japan's Sawai family

Tokyo

FOR decades, Japan's Sawai family was content to keep the drug business they founded focused on its home market. Now, they are steering the country's second-biggest maker of generic drugs through its first overseas acquisition in its 88-year history.

Sawai Pharmaceutical Co, which plans to complete its US$1 billion purchase of the generic drug business of Minnesota-based Upsher-Smith Laboratories Inc next month, forecasts sales growth at the US business to reach 13 per cent annually through 2021.