Eisai Commences Fully-Fledged Business Activities at Pharma Sales Subsidiary in South Africa

TOKYO, Feb 1, 2024 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. announced today that fully-fledged operations have begun at Eisai Pharmaceuticals Africa (Pty) Ltd (“Eisai South Africa”), a pharmaceutical sales subsidiary recently established in Johannesburg, South Africa, and direct sales operations and business activities have commenced in Africa. Eisai South Africa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eisai.

South Africa has a population of about 60 million, with the largest pharmaceutical market in Sub-Saharan Africa at 3.477 billion USD in 2022, exhibiting an average growth rate of 6% in local currency terms from 2018 to 2022.1 In 2017, Eisai started selling Eisai products in South Africa through local distribution partners, marketing anticancer drugs Halaven® and Lenvima®, and the antiepileptic drug Fycompa®. Eisai South Africa was established in May 2022, and took over the marketing authorization approvals for those products from the local distribution partners. Eisai South Africa has started sales and marketing activities directly for Lenvima and Fycompa from January 2024, as well as Halaven from February 2024. Additionally, the market launch of anti-insomnia drug Dayvigo® is planned for June 2024. Eisai South Africa plans to expand sales of these products to other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, such as Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Moreover, a regulatory filing for Alzheimer’s disease treatment LEQEMBI® in South Africa is scheduled in FY2023 ending March 31, 2024.

Kenya Branch, Eisai Pharmaceuticals Africa (Pty) Ltd (“Eisai Kenya”), established in October 2022 in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya, as a branch of Eisai South Africa, will expand access to new treatments such as Halaven and Fycompa in Kenya and other East African Community (EAC) countries, such as Tanzania and Uganda through local distribution partners. Eisai Kenya will also serve as a site for collaboration with research institutes, such as Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), an important local partner in the global health field of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and malaria, one of Eisai’s focus areas, and the Nagasaki University Institute of Tropical Medicine’s Kenya Research Station, to further expand networks of people and promote R&D and access to medicines.

With the rapid economic growth and improvement of the medical environment in Africa in recent years, the average life expectancy is increasing, and there is expected to be a growing demand for cancer and dementia treatments. Meanwhile, improving access to medicines for NTDs, which cause a vicious cycle of poverty and infectious diseases in endemic areas, potentially hindering economic growth, is also an imminent challenge. Seeking solutions to these challenges in Africa, Eisai will continue its initiatives to deliver necessary medicines to the patients who need them through Eisai South Africa and Eisai Kenya.

For more information, visit www.eisai.com/news/2024/news202409.html.

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Eisai Co., Ltd.
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