TOKYO, May 11 (Reuters) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, Japan's biggest drugmaker, reported on Monday a 39 percent drop in annual recurring profit to an eight-year low due to costly acquisitions and forecast a 22 percent rise this year.
Recurring profit fell to 327.2 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in the year ended on March 31 as Takeda acquired U.S. biotech firm Millennium Pharmaceuticals and absorbed its part of a former U.S. joint venture TAP Pharmaceuticals.
Joining other drugmakers using acquisitions to stave off earnings falls on patent expirations, Takeda is seeking to capitalise on Millennium's cancer drug pipeline and TAP's marketing network.
Takeda suffered a drug development setback in March, triggering concerns that it may not have a timely replacement for its blockbuster diabetes drug Actos which will lose U.S. patent protection in 2011 and may have to spend more in the coming year to develop its key drug candidate.
Takeda forecast a recurring profit of 400 billion yen in the year to March 2010, short of a consensus forecast of 448.43 billion yen in a poll of 20 analysts by Thomson Reuters. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)