Takeda's profit for the year ended March 31, slumped 16.8 percent to 247.9 billion Japanese yen ($3.1 billion), due in part to the strength of the Japanese currency against the dollar and US patent expiry on Prevacid, the company said Wednesday. Sales of the treatment, which is sold as Takepron in the drugmaker's home market, plunged 38.2 percent to 133.6 billion yen ($1.6 billion).

The profit figure was ahead of Takeda's own target of 230 billion yen ($2.8 billion), and was broadly in line with analysts forecasts of 250.5 billion yen ($3.1 billion), while overall revenue fell 3.2 percent for the year to 1.4 trillion yen ($17.3 billion). Revenue from Actos was up 1.2 percent to 387.9 billion yen ($4.8 billion) despite a patent on the product expiring in January. The full impact of generic versions of the diabetes drug are expected to be felt once drugmakers launch their versions of the drug in August next year.

In other product sales, annual revenue from Blopress was down less than 1 percent to 218 billion yen ($2.7 billion), while sales of Leuplin fell 3.3 percent to 116.4 billion yen ($1.4 billion).

For the current year, Takeda said it expects net profit to increase nearly 1 percent to 250 billion yen ($3.1 billion) on a 2.2-percent increase on revenue to 1.5 trillion yen ($18.5 billion). Looking further forward, the company indicated that it is targeting profit of 160 billion yen ($2 billion) in the year starting April 2013 on revenue of 1.3 trillion yen ($16 billion), and expects R&D spending to reach 290 billion yen ($3.6 billion).

 President Yasuchika Hasegawa suggested that earnings are likely to hit a trough in the same year, when Takeda will be able to launch more new products from its pipeline and from its US unit Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which it bought in 2008.

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