Japan-based Eisai Co. has announced that fully-fledged operations and business activities have begun at Eisai Pharmaceuticals Single Person Limited Liability Company (Eisai Saudi Arabia), a pharmaceutical sales subsidiary recently established in Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Eisai Saudi Arabia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eisai’s European regional headquarters, Eisai Europe.

In the 1960s, Eisai started business in the Middle East marketing and selling Eisai products through local distribution partners. In Saudi Arabia, Eisai began selling the peripheral neuropathy treatment Methycobal in 2009, and has since expanded the product pipeline with the launch of antiepileptic drug Fycompa in 2018, anticancer drug Lenvima in 2020, and others, through local distribution partners.

Eisai Saudi Arabia was established in April 2024 in order to build an in-house sales system in Saudi Arabia, and is in the process of taking over commercial rights for the Eisai products in Saudi Arabia from local distribution partners. Eisai Saudi Arabia started sales and marketing activities for Methycobal and Fycompa in October 2024, and plans to expand activities to include Lenvima and anticancer agent Halaven from April 2025. Moreover, an application for Alzheimer’s disease treatment lecanemab has been submitted for review in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s pharmaceutical market reached $11,342 million in 2023, making it the largest market in the Middle East, with an average growth rate of 7% in local currency terms from 2019 to 2023. With the commencement of operations at Eisai Saudi Arabia, Eisai aims to utilise its own drug sales system in Saudi Arabia, deliver innovative new drugs to more patients in the country as quickly as possible, and contribute to improving the benefits of patients and their families.