Pharma Giant Schering Eyes Asia

German pharmaceuticals specialist Schering AG on Monday opened its regional office in Singapore as a springboard to tap into the growing contraception needs of Asian women. "With our new headquarters in Singapore we are well positioned to serve women's family spacing needs in Asia," Schering Asia-Pacific's managing director, Klaus Wulf, said. "We see a new generation of women in Asia today contributing to vast changes and economic growth in this region. "They are increasingly better educated, more career and travel mobile and important contributors to the economy of their country as well as their individual families." The Frankfurt-listed firm said its contraceptive pill, Yasmin, the best selling oral fertility control drug in the world, was suitable for Asian women. "Due to the unique features of Yasmin, we can offer women in Asia an important new option in contraception," said Gunter Stock, a member of Schering AG's executive board responsible for research and gynecology. "Yasmin contains drospirenone which is very similar to the naturally occurring hormone, progesterone." Schering AG's sales in the Asia Pacific totaled 316 million US dollars in 2004 with Australia, South Korea and China its biggest markets.