A Look Inside Takeda's Remarkable R&D Transformation
February 27, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
OSAKA, Japan – In September 2016, Takeda Pharmaceuticals set aside $15 billion for acquisitions, primarily in the United States. The company said acquisitions would be in line with the company’s plan to refocus its research & development on three targeted therapeutic areas—oncology, gastroenterology and the central nervous system (CNS).
The acquisition model for growth was developed in part due to the lack of growth from internal investments into research and development, MedCity News reported this morning, citing 2016 data collected by Deloitte. That data shows that pharma companies are only seeing a 3.7 percent return on investment in internal R&D. With limited returns, Takeda is blazing a trial on its expanding R&D through M&A practices, including the company’s recent acquisition of Ariad Pharmaceuticals . Additionally Takeda inked a rare disease deal with Ovid, acquired Bay Area startup Maverick Therapeutics to develop that company’s T-cell engagement platform and entered into an antibody drug conjugate deal with LegoChem Biosciences. All of those deals were done since the start of 2017.
As Takeda has undergone this organizational shift, business development has fallen to the company’s Center for External Innovation. That unit includes the three targeted areas of oncology, gastroenterology and the central nervous system. In an interview with MedCity News, Perrin Wilson, senior director of business development for Takeda, said the Japanese company no longer goes into a deal with any “preconceived notions” of how a new company will fit into the pipeline. That doesn’t mean Takeda is spending money without any thought of how a company will fit. Wilson said Takeda is looking to “fill strategic gaps in both therapeutic areas and drug modalities.” For example, she told MedCity News that Takeda has a strong line of therapies for blood cancers, but was looking to add more solid tumor treatments, which is how they focused on Ariad. The deals also have to appeal to where drugs can be sold as well.
“We do have a couple of products in solid tumors but they’re more regional,” Wilson told MedCity News, talking about where product licenses are available to Takeda. “Ariad represented a true global solid tumor opportunity for us, upon which we could build.”
Wilson explained that many companies, particularly early stage ones, are looking for partners who can commercialize a drug, while the small company primarily focuses on the research. But, many of those companies striking a deal with Takeda are looking to hold onto U.S. rights, which is a large market. While the U.S. market is big, Wilson said if a regional deal is smart for Takeda, then the company will strike such a deal.
Wilson also told MedCity that it’s important to look at what these deals are bringing to Takeda–primarily an expansion into different areas, including immuno-oncology and targeted therapeutics.
“Historically, Takeda was very focused on small molecules,” Wilson said. “And you can see through our deals we’re also moving into different areas; biologics, whether it be through ADCs, antibodies or like with Maverick, where it’s really T-cell engagement.”