Pharmaceutical company intelligence reports from Espicom provide a full review of the company's activities together with five-year sales forecasts for its key products. The company's financial performance is covered in-depth, from its latest results to a complete analysis of its latest full fiscal year and an outlook for the future. A section on company strategy covers mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, key agreements, products and R&D. An overview of key products and R&D is followed by a comprehensive review of the company's product portfolio and research and development pipeline by therapeutic area. In addition, supplementary appendices provide more in-depth information on financials, agreements and corporate events. The Otsuka Pharmaceutical Group (OPG) consists of more than 81 companies and 26,000 employees worldwide. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company (OPC) is one of the largest healthcare companies in Japan and one of the largest privately-held firms in the world. The company has invested in local enterprises and established corporations in 15 countries and regions around the world. Businesses in the group include Pharmaceuticals, Consumer products, Nutraceuticals, Cosmetics, Beverages, Over-The-Counter products (OTC), Food and Drink products, Chemical ingredients, and Environmental products. OPC has a diverse portfolio including central nervous system, cardiovascular, circulatory, gastrointestinal, respiratory, dermatological and ophthalmologic therapies, and is pursuing research in genomics and protein function.

The Otsuka Maryland Research Institute (OMRI; clinical research and development) and Otsuka Maryland Medicinal Laboratories (OMML; focused on basic and applied research) are the group's main research and development businesses which support global product development for OPC. Otsuka America Pharmaceutical (OAPI), a sister company, commercialises Otsuka's in-house and Other products in North America. Key business areas include neuroscience, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal therapeutic treatments. OMML considers itself to be an innovative, employee-oriented research organisation, supporting Otsuka's global pharmaceutical product development. It is dedicated to "creating new products for better health worldwide."

As a privately-owned company, Otsuka provides very little financial information. As such, it is difficult to gauge the performance of some of its leading pharmaceutical products. Otsuka has a number of older products which still provide a significant contribution to sales. In addition, much of its revenue comes from joint research, out-licensing and other alliances, such as that with Bristol-Myers Squibb.

In Japan, recent shifts in the business environment have increased competition for domestic pharmaceuticals as the larger pharma companies from Europe and the US make gains in terms of Japanese market share.

Whether or not Otsuka's pipeline is strong enough in its current form to compete with the rising competition remains to be seen. It may be that Otsuka needs to step-up its in-licensing activities to fill any gaps left by its older products as they come off patent and begin to experience more competition.