2nd UPDATE: Teva Buys Japanese Generics Maker Taiyo

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) Monday said it had acquired a 57% stake in Japan's third-largest generic drugs maker for $460 million in cash, significantly boosting its presence in the country.

The deal, which gives privately held Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry Co. Ltd. an enterprise value of $1.3 billion, includes an offer to buy all the remaining shares in the company.

Teva, the world's largest producer of generic drugs, said it expects the acquisition to add to earnings within four quarters of the deal closing, which it expects by the end of the third quarter. It will pay for it with a mixture of cash and bank debt.

Taiyo posted sales of $530 million in 2010. It has a portfolio of over 550 generic drugs in various therapeutic areas.

"This acquisition will enable Teva to deliver on our strategic objective of becoming a leading player in the fast-growing Japanese generics market. In fact, we now expect to reach our 2015 target of $1 billion in sales in Japan ahead of schedule," Teva Chief Executive Shlomo Yanai said in a statement.

"Japan is the second-largest pharmaceutical market in the world, valued at $96 billion in 2010 with a relatively low rate of generic penetration of 23%. The Japanese government has expressed its intention to increase generic penetration to 30% by 2012," the company added.

The Israeli company has been expanding aggressively recently.

Earlier in May, it announced a deal to acquire U.S. specialty drug maker Cephalon Inc (CEPH) for $6.8 billion, to boost its presence in branded drugs. In March, Teva unveiled a joint venture with Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) that combines their over-the-counter drug businesses outside North America, projecting sales of up to $4 billion by the mid to later part of the decade. Last summer it bought German drug maker Ratiopharm for $5 billion.

The U.S. remains Teva's main market, accounting for half of its revenue, but the company wants to expand its exposure in markets with higher growth potential, and Monday's announcement reflects that aim.

Teva last week said first-quarter profits rose 7%, as strength in Europe and emerging markets help offset weakness in North America where generic drug sales were hit by a lack of new launches and manufacturing issues.

The company wants to reduce its reliance on Copaxone, its leading branded treatment for multiple sclerosis, which faces increasing competitive threats.

Last month, the drug maker reported positive data on its oral multiple sclerosis treatment laquinimod, developed by Sweden-based Active Biotech (ACTI.SK), which may provide a foothold in the emerging market for oral MS treatments while also helping dilute the dependence on Copaxone's profits.

Teva's latest deal underscores the separation in Japan between the generic and proprietary drug industries there.

Japan's biggest makers of patented treatments are busy ramping up multi-billion dollar acquisitions in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets to offset product pipelines that are emptying, as blockbuster medicines approach the end of patent protection.

In the latest and highest-priced example of that trend, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502.TO), Japan's biggest drug maker by sales, is homing in on a deal to buy Swiss peer Nycomed for up to $14 billion that could be announced as early as this week, people familiar with the matter say.

Japan's fourth-biggest drug maker by sales, Eisai Co. in January 2008 bought U.S.'s MGI Pharma for $3.9 billion. A few months later, Takeda spent $8.8 billion to buy Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. biotech firm. Also that year, Daiichi Sankyo Co. acquired a controlling stake in India's Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, an Indian generic drugs maker, for $4.6 billion.

Teva's latest deal targets a Japanese generics maker which underscores the attractions of Japan's fast-growing economy.

High-profile Japanese drug makers have, for their part, shown little appetite for generics deals at home. Dwarfed by both domestic brand-name drug makers and peers in industrialized countries, Japan's makers of "copy-cat" medicines have been hampered by a government-controlled system of minimum prices and misconceptions about the quality of their products.

While use of generic drugs has been growing, progress has been slow and the government goal of a 30% market share still seems distant. Still, even at that level, generic products would account for half as much of Japan's drug market as in countries like the U.S., the U.K. and Germany.

-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9292; [e-mail]

   (Kenny Maxwell in Tokyo contributed to this article.)