Medipal Seeks to Diversify Amid Falling Drug Margins (1)

Japan’s largest drug wholesaler Medipal Holdings Corp. is seeking merger and acquisition opportunities to diversify its business and counter slower growth in the market.

The distributor, which also sells cosmetics and sundries, is seeking to boost profit, excluding extraordinary items, to ¥100 billion ($694 million) by March 2027 from ¥65 billion in the latest fiscal year. “To do so, we need growth outside of organic means, including M&A,” Toshihide Yoda, senior managing director of Medipal Holdings said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday.

Medipal is expanding into areas such as animal health products and drug development as margins ...