Mitsubishi Tanabe shares dive on falsified drug data

TOKYO, March 25 (Reuters) - Shares of Japanese drugmaker Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp (4508.T) plunged 14 percent after the company said it would recall two blood products after finding allergy-test data on one of them had been falsified.

The fall in Mitsubishi Tanabe's shares wiped 89 billion yen ($910 million) off its market value.

The Osaka-based drugmaker said on Tuesday it had found allergy-test data had been falsified during pilot production as part of its application for approval to market one of its Medway human serum albumin products.

It said it was investigating why the original data on the drugs, used to treat loss of a key blood protein due to burns or cirrhosis of the liver, had been covered up.

Analysts said the news could affect Mitsubishi Tanabe's longer-term earnings outlook due to a loss of trust, and they downgraded their ratings on its shares.

"Data falsification is unacceptable for a drug company and raises questions about Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma's corporate social responsibility practices," Credit Suisse analyst Fumiyoshi Sakai said in a note to clients.

Credit Suisse cut its rating on Mitsubishi Tanabe shares by two notches to "underperform" from "outperform."

Mitsubishi Tanabe launched the products in Japan last May in two injectable forms, generating 222 million yen ($2.3 million) in sales in the 10 months to the end of February.

That accounts for only a fraction of its revenue, which came to 325 billion yen in the 10 months to December.

Mitsubishi Tanabe will seek government approval to resume sales of one version of the product in which there was no data falsification, but it will drop the other version, a company spokesman said. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani; Editing by Hugh Lawson)