Suntory is betting on health foods and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals to hedge its fortunes and counter possible weakness in its main business lines.

So the company has started acquiring Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare, an OTC drugmaker, for ?246.5 billion ($1.5 billion), and will own the whole company in about three years.

¡°Looking at the next 10 years, we are aiming to roughly double sales through synergy and growth of existing products,¡± Toru Miyanaga, Suntory¡¯s chief strategy officer, said last week, in speaking about Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare.