Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Daiichi Sankyo Co., Japan's third- largest drugmaker, agreed to sell two subsidiaries to Nippon Shokubai Co. to focus on its main pharmaceutical business.

Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo will sell to the Japanese chemical manufacturer all shares in subsidiary Nippon Nyukazai Co. and its 52 percent holding in Sino-Japan Chemical, a venture with a Taiwanese company, they said in a joint statement. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The news was reported by the Nikkei newspaper earlier today.

The effect on Daiichi Sankyo's business of the sale, to occur on Feb. 29, will be disclosed at a later date, according to the statement. Nippon Nyukazai and Sino-Japan, which both make and sell organic chemicals, will increase Osaka-based Nippon Shokubai's revenue by about 11 percent, based on last year's sales.

Daiichi Sankyo sold animal-health, chemical products and at least a dozen other businesses since its formation in September 2005 from Sankyo Co.'s purchase of Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. It's concentrating on developing new prescription medicines to replace the cholesterol pill Mevalotin, whose sales have slumped since its U.S. patent expired in 2003.

The statement was released after markets in Japan closed. Daiichi Sankyo fell 130 yen, or 3.6 percent, to 3,470 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and have dropped 6.7 percent this year. That's about half the decline of the exchange's 34-member Topix Pharmaceutical index.

Nippon Nyukazai, based in Tokyo, had sales of 23.77 billion yen in the year ended March 2007. Taipei-based Sino-Japan had revenue of NT$1.77 billion ($55 million) in the year ended Dec. 30, 2006, according to the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at at kmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 30, 2007 02:38 EST