Japan's Eisai is unloading a nearly four-decade-old plant in Taiwan as it remakes its manufacturing network.
A subsidiary of Eisai is selling the plant to Bora, parent of Taiwan-based Hoan Pharmaceuticals. Details of the deal were not provided.
Eisai said the plant, opened in 1974, had produced drugs for Asian markets but does not fit into its new global-centric approach. The company said in September that it was moving from a manufacturing network based on regional management to a system that is organized by product family and globally integrated. The move does not mean that the Japanese company is pulling back in Asia. In fact, last year it indicated that it would focus more on its home region as demand for drugs there grows.
Of course Asia has become a hotbed of drug manufacturing activity and Taiwan has been getting its share of new facilities. Some of its companies have also been flexing their muscles in the region. Taiwan-based ScinoPharm is building a $37.6 million plant in Tainan to manufacture high potency cytotoxic compounds to be used in injectable cancer drugs. The plant is slated to open in 2014.
Taiwan's TOT Biopharm opened a manufacturing facility in eastern China's Suzhou Industrial Park, the first phase of what it says is a $100 million plant for developing and manufacturing cancer drugs for the global market.
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