is a Japanese snack food company. It is the trade name of a

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympt ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. It was renamed into the on March 31, 2011. It is currently a subsidiary of

Meiji Holdings is a Japanese holding company established on April 1, 2009, after the stock transfer from Meiji Seika and Meiji Dairies and is the fourth largest confectionery company in the world. Reorganization Meiji Holdings held a press conference on Septe ...

and a Japanese leader in the area of infectious disease with 18% market share. It markets treatments for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, vaccines and allergy drugs. Meiji Pharma is doing research in generic anticancer drugs and biosimilars with partner organisations. It was the

confectionery Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlappi ...

and pharmaceutical company that manufactures a wide range of products including Hello Panda and Yan Yan. Its competitors include

Ezaki Glico , commonly known as just Glico, is a Japanese multinational food processing company headquartered in Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka. It does business across 30 countries, in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Overview Ezaki Glico's primar ...

Kabaya is a Japanese confectionery company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose a ...

, Lotte Confectionery and Morinaga. They acquired the Stauffer Biscuit Company based in

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

, USA in 2004. On April 1, 2009, Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd. and Meiji Dairies Corporation established a joint holding company, Meiji Holdings, which is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 index. Two years later on the day, the food and healthcare business was taken over by Meiji Dairies to form "Meiji Co., Ltd.", and Meiji Seika was reorganized to a pharmaceutical company "Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd." In 2014 Meiji acquired Medreich für $290 million, an Indian company active in selling generic pharmaceuticals to Europe, Asia and Africa.

Logos

File:Meiji Seika Kaisha logo.svg, Old Meiji Seika brand logo (used from 1955 until March 2009) File:Meiji logo.svg, Current logo

References

External links

Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. (English)Meiji Co., Ltd. (English)Stauffer Biscuit Company
Japanese companies established in 1916 Japanese chocolate companies Confectionery companies of Japan Food and drink companies based in Tokyo Japanese brands Pharmaceutical companies based in Tokyo Pharmaceutical companies established in 1916 Snack food manufacturers of Japan {{med-company-stub