Bayer to Withdraw Baycol From Japan

Bayer pulled its cholesterol drug Baycol from Japan, the last market where it had remained available after being pulled elsewhere earlier this month because it was linked to 52 deaths.

Germany’s biggest drug maker had left the drug, also sold as Certa by Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., on the Japanese market because another medicine involved in some of the deaths wasn’t available there. Bayer said Japan plans to approve that drug, known as gemfibrozil, prompting Baycol’s withdrawal.

Bayer has lost about a quarter of its value since announcing plans to pull Baycol, the fastest-growing of its top medicines. The company expects the market withdrawals to shave as much as $730 million off this year’s operating profit.