Shionogi & Co., a Japan-based pharmaceutical company, plans to acquire Sciele Pharma for $1.1 billion. The planned bid is aimed at expanding Shionogi’s sales network into the U.S. “As we have moved ahead on improving our product pipeline, we have been faced with increasingly imminent challenge of getting a hold of a sales network in the world’s largest market,” Shionogi president, Isao Teshirogi, said. Mr. Teshirogi added that Sciele should also help the company gain approval for new drugs from U.S. regulators.
   
Sciele Pharma specializes in branded prescription products focused on cardiovascular, diabetes, women’s health and pediatrics. Sciele’s biggest blood-pressure drug Sular faces generic competition. Sciele is now promoting newly approved forms of Sular in an effort to counter potential generic competition of the older version of the drug. Shionogi’s biggest product is cholesterol drug Crestor, through a license fee from AstraZeneca.