[Company analysis] Eisai Co., Ltd. (エーザイ)

「Eisai Co., Ltd. (エーザイ)」is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, and it ranked 20th in the world by pharmaceutical company's sales volume. In the past, this company mainly dealt with bandages and food products, but now ethical drugs are the main products of Eisai and it is also 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 10,683.

 

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	Eisai Co., Ltd.
Company name (Japanese)	エーザイ
Date of establishment	Saturday, December 6, 1941
Headquarters location	〒112-8088 東京都文京区小石川4-6-10
Capital	44,986
Consolidated sales	642,834
Consolidated operating profit	86,154
Consolidated total assets	1,071,520
Consolidated capital	651,981
Capital adequacy ratio	60.8%
Consolidated number of employees	10,683

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
In 1941,「Nihon Eisai Co., Ltd(日本衛材株式会社)」, the predecessor of Eisai, was established. In its early days, they dealt with vitamin E, contraceptives and chocolate. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Eisai has achieved rapid growth, mainly for peripheral neuropathy drugs. Among them, "Aricept" and "Pariet" / "Acinone" (AcipHex), which were released in the 1990s, made a big hit and and allowed them to enter the ethical drug market.

At present, the sales of the above two products still account for 60% of the total, but since 2010, the sale ratio started to be decreased due to the patent expiration problems.「Eisai」also decided to sell their factory in Saitama Prefecture in 2014, in order to improve their business structure. In November 2018, this company announced early retirement by using a lump-sum payment in partnership with「Merck」. Fortunately, by launching anticancer drugs  in early days, their sales of ¥ 600 billion were able to be recovered in 2017.

One of the features of「Eisai」is their incentive system. their employees who made contribution to development of new drug, get paid 0.05% of the total sales for the five years after the launch of a new drug. In fact, they already paid approximately 100 million yen, or 0.05% of our five-year sales, to dozens of employees who have contributed to the research and development of Aricept and Pariet. Because of this background, Eisai's ratio of in-house developed products is as high as 90% of the total.

As for the overseas sales, it accounts for about half of the total. 「Eisai」have nine production plants around the world, including the United Kingdom and India. they are the only Japanese pharmaceutical company who have strong interest in the US market and managing all divisions from R & D to production and sales in the United States through local subsidiaries. Besides, 「Eisai」have relatively high ratio of outside experts (lawyers, professors, etc.) on the board of directors compare with other companies. 

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Pharmaceutical R & D, manufacturing, sales and import / export

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		539,097	600,054	642,834
Consolidated operating profit		59,064	77,212	86,154
Consolidated total assets		1,030,764	1,049,031	1,071,520
Consolidated net assets		602,591	614,098	651,981
Breakdown of sales	Japan domestic	291,071	296,170	301,076
	United States	116,499	113,923	97,859
	Chana	49,274	56,231	66,299
	EMEA	37,825	44,298	49,793
	Asia・South America	35,295	42,611	48,717
	Others	9,133	46,821	79,090