DAIICHI SPEEDS SUNTORY JV BUYOUT, RAISES FORECAST

Japan's Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said on Wednesday it moved up the buyout of its joint venture with Suntory to Sept. 15 from the previously scheduled October-March period and raised its full-year profit forecast because of an accounting change. Daiichi, Japan's fifth-biggest drug maker, now sees a net profit for the year through March 2006 of 30 billion yen ($271 million), up from its July estimate of 21 billion yen. Daiichi had originally planned to buy the 34 percent of Daiichi Suntory Pharma Co. Ltd. that it did not own by the end of March, but decided to advance the time frame ahead of Daiichi's merger with Sankyo Co. Ltd., set for Sept. 28.

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