Buying Kyowa Hakko would mean Kirin would own allergy and cancer medicines that more than doubled in profits by mid 2007. Kirin is also purchasing Australian-based dairy company National Foods Ltd. National Foods produces primarily dairy and juice. Seeing as beer production in Japan fell for the first half of 2007 to its lowest point since 1992, this shows Kirin's ability to look ahead and brew up some other business.
Source: Bloomberg.com & North Korea Times
