Staff in pharmaceutical jobs in Asia-Pacific may be set to see French manufacturer Sanofi-aventis move to expand its presence in the territory.
Hanspeter Spek, the company's president of global operations, told PharmaTimes World News that Sanofi-aventis considers the nation to be a "very sustainable" market in which it wishes to invest more heavily.
During 2010, the company saw its sales in the region increase by 9.1 per cent year-over-year to a total of €2.23 billion (£1.87 billion), with a quarter of this coming from the blood-thinning treatment Plavix.
Mr Spek believes that older drugs such as Plavix and Allegra still have growth potential in Japan, but added that local firms are generally less open to forming alliances.
He said it "takes two to tango" and suggested that its efforts to find partners may be hindered by the preference of Japanese companies to collaborate with each other.
According to the company's global report for 2010, Sanofi-aventis generated €30.38 billion in sales last year, representing a slight decline compared to 2009.