Japanese pharmecutical giant acquires U.S. vitamin maker.
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Pharmavite Corp., one of the nation's leading makers and suppliers of vitamins, has been sold for an undisclosed sum to the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan, Pharmavite executives said Tuesday.
The acquisition, scheduled to close next month, will open a door into the $3 billion nutritional suppliment market in the United States for Otsuka. Pharmavite will get financial backing to expand its research and launch a new line of retail vitamin products aimed at the growing home health maintenance market, a Pharmavite executive said.
'We view the merger of our companies as a bold step in our continuing drive to establish a meaningful, viable Otsuka presence in the Pacific Rim,' said A. Otsuka, president of Japan's third-largest pharmaceutical firm.
Otsuka, which expects 1988 sales to reach $5 billion, owns research companies in Seattle and Rockville, Md., as well as an electronics facility in Havertown, Penn., and the Ridge Winery of Cupertino, Calif.
'Ours is an industry that only recently has gone into the retail mainstream,' said Ken Rosenberg, Pharmavite's chief executive officer. 'And because of the newness of our product lines, it is one of the few that does not have a 'household name,' in it. We would like to come up with that leading product.'
In addition, Pharmavite products will be sold in Pacific Rim countries, Rosenberg said. Exports to Japan and South Korea will start early next year.
Pharmavite, which sells its Nature Made vitamins and mineral suppliments through 30,000 retail outlets like Thrifty's and K mart, is an 18-year-old company founded by Henry Burdick and Barry Pressman. It employes 520 people at its San Fernando Valley manufacturing facilities.
Pharmavite sales will top $80 million in 1987, Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg, Pressman and Burdick will remain with company, and the company's name will remain the same, Rosenberg said.
