Takeda seeks approval for sleep drug in Europe

TOKYO, March 20 (Reuters) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502.T), Japan's largest drug maker, said on Tuesday it has applied for the right to sell a sleep drug in Europe, hoping to enter a market led by Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA).

Takeda said it has submitted a marketing application to the European Medicines Agency for the insomnia drug, Ramelteon, which is already being sold in the United States under the name Rozerem.

Takeda spokesman Shoji Wakayama said the market for insomnia drugs in Europe was worth about $1 billion in fiscal 2005, with the major markets of the U.K., Germany, France and Italy accounted for about 60 percent of the total.

The current leader in the market is Sanofi-Aventis's drug Ambien, Wakayama said.

Wakayama said Rozerem logged sales of $62 million in the United States in the nine months to December, against overall sales in the country of more than $4 billion during the same period.

The process from marketing application to the start of sales typically would take about one year, Wakayama said.