[Company analysis] Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (塩野義製薬)

「Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (塩野義製薬)」 is a major Japanese pharmaceutical company headquartered in Osaka. Its main business is pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs, which account for over 90% of sales. This company is considered as major Japanese pharmaceutical companies, Even though, it is not included in Japan's five largest pharmaceutical companies(「Takeda Pharmaceutical Company(武田薬品工業)」、「Astellas Pharma(アステラス製薬)」、「Daiichi Sankyo(第一三共)」、「Otsuka Holdings(大塚ホールディングス)」、「Eisai(エーザイ)」)The number of consolidated employees is about 5,000.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Shionogi & Co., Ltd.
Company name (Japanese)	塩野義製薬
Date of establishment	March 17, 1878
Headquarters location	〒541-0045 大阪市中央区道修町３丁目１番８号
Capital	21,279
Consolidated sales	363,721
Consolidated operating profit	138,537
Consolidated total assets	778,741
Consolidated capital	672,429
Capital adequacy ratio	86.3%
Consolidated number of employees	5,000

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
Similar to「Takeda Pharmaceutical Company(武田薬品工業)」, 「Shionogi」was established in 1878 in Doshu-cho, Osaka, as a pharmaceutical wholesaler. At the time of its founding, it was naturally specialized in Chinese medicine, but since the Meiji Restoration, the demand for Western medicine has increased along with the spread of Western medicine, and from 1886 this company was decided to specialize in Western medicine only. In 1892, the company began full-scale operation of a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, and in 1909, started producing Shionogi's first anti-indigestion drug, Antacidin.

In 1911, this company began importing and selling a syphilis treatment developed in Germany, licensed Bayer's aspirin, and sold it in Japan under the name "Shiono Aspirin(シオノアスピリン)". During World War II,「Shionogi」challenged the development of the antibiotic "penicillin", but gave up without overcoming the technical and financial hurdles. However, this research knowhow and experience on antibiotics let them successfully develop Cephalosporin antibiotic.

In the late 1980s, when the antibiotic market was at its peak in the pharmaceutical market, Shionogi had a market share of 25% and won the top sales of antibiotics. And the overall sales of antibiotics increased to two-thirds. Among them, only two varieties, “Cefaclor” and “Latamoxef Sodium”, which are representative antibiotics, made up half of the total sales. 

At that time,「Shionogi」was famous as the industry's highest level sales organization. This is a sales organization that supports almost everything for clients, such as researching documents and making slides for conference presentations, and this was called a detailman within Shionogi. And this is the earliest form of MR(Medical Information Officer).

However, its heyday did not last long. Because of the problem of resistant bacteria to antibiotics, sales of 「Shionogi」started drop sharply since the 1990s. In addition, the development of a new blockbuster drug was delayed. They continued to research and publish paper at that time, still there was Blank period in releasing new drugs. So research institute of「Shionogi」sometimes to be Maliciously called "Shionogi University".

To overcome this crisis, this company decided to conduct restructuring of business. they sold non-pharmaceutical businesses, such as the wholesale division, and focus solely on new drug research. Fortunately, the development of "Crestor", a hypertensive drug, was successful, and it was launched in Japan in 2005. And they got approval more than 100 countries worldwide in 2009, and started to be sold in 80 countries. 

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Research, development, manufacture, sales, etc. of pharmaceuticals, clinical test drugs and equipment

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		338,890	344,667	363,721
Consolidated operating profit		108,178	115,219	138,537
Consolidated total assets		670,271	722,500	778,741
Consolidated net assets		526,211	604,840	672,429
Breakdown of sales	Japan domestic medicines	158,000	139,200	128,700
	Oversea sales	29,200	23,600	29,400
	Consignment manufacturing	12,100	16,900	14,800
	General medicine	6,800	7,200	8,100
	Royalty income	115,700	155,000	180,300
	Others	17,100	2,600	2,500