From Drinks To Drugs: DyDo Charts Course For Pharma Entry

11 May 2018

A company with its main business in soft drinks and canned coffee might seem an unlikely entrant into the prescription pharma business, but Japan’s DyDo Group maintains it has solid reasons and a robust business plan for what it sees as an important future growth driver.

Tomiya Takamatsu — DYDO HOLDINGS PRESIDENT TOMIYA TAKAMATSU • Source: DyDo Holdings

Japan has long been a source of unlikely entrants into the pharmaceutical industry, with materials companies such as Teijin Ltd., major drinks firms like Suntory Ltd. and Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd., and diversified groups including Kowa Co. Ltd. all building a presence of varying size and success over the past decades, usually with the help of mainstream partners.

As such, Osaka-based drinks group DyDo Group Holdings - whose main business is in canned coffee found in the ubiquitous...