UPJOHN INVESTING $50 MIL. FOR START-UP OF JAPANESE R&D

UPJOHN INVESTING $50 MIL. FOR START-UP OF JAPANESE R&D to be called Upjohn Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the firm announced in a March 5 release. The new subsidiary will develop Upjohn discovered compounds for marketing by Japan Upjohn, the twenty-five year old 55-45 pharmaceutical marketing joint venture between Upjohn and Sumitomo. Upjohn Vice Chairman Theodore Cooper, MD/PhD, said that Upjohn established the new Japanese R&D arm "because we see in Japan a special opportunity to expand our scientific resource base and to broaden our drug-discovery and development efforts." Upjohn said that the new subsidiary will become the firm's largest research facility outside of Kalamazoo, Mich. Udo Axen, formerly director therapeutics products for Upjohn, has been named VP-Pharmaceutical P&D, Japan to head the new subsidiary of the U.S. corporation. Upjohn Pharmaceuticals "will conduct clinical and preclinical studies, direct drug registration activities and institute extensive pharmaceutical research and development activities," Upjohn explained. In addition, Upjohn said that the new subsidiary will also package drugs sold by Japan Upjohn. "Formation of our new company does not alter our highly successful relationship with Sumitomo," Cooper said. "In fact, we expect that the advent of Upjohn Pharmaceuticals Ltd. will strengthen the position of the joint venture." Japan Upjohn's primary market focus has been antibiotics including clindamycin (Upjohn's Cleocin) and lincomycin. Upjohn described Japan as its largest foreign market. In 1983 total foreign sales (excluding Europe) were $321 mil. The new Japanese subsidiary will "eventually employ 400-500 persons," Upjohn noted. The subsidiary will have offices in Tokyo and packaging facilities and a laboratory at Takasaki. Upjohn said it is "now in the process of evaluating sites for a larger laboratory facility for the new subsidiary." The firm said it expects construction of the new laboratory to be underway "by 1988."