Takeda Continues to Shed OTC Business Offerings with $2.3 Billion Deal
Takeda continues to divest its over-the-counter business operations and has struck a deal for its U.S. offerings with The Blackstone Group, a U.S.-based investment fund valued at $2.37 billion.
Over the past several months, Takeda has struck multiple deals for its over-the-counter offerings in different markets. Most recently, the Japan-based pharma giant struck a deal with Celltrion Inc. for its non-core assets, prescription and over-the-counter, sold in the Asia Pacific market. South Korea-based Celltrion paid $278 million for the portfolio that includes prescription drugs Nesina, a diabetes treatment, and hypertension drug Edarbi. The portfolio generated net sales of $140 million in 2018.
This morning, Reuters reported that Takeda reached an agreement with Blackstone for Takeda Consumer Healthcare and its portfolio, which includes the Alinamin line of energy drinks. Takeda, which placed the business unit up for sale earlier this Spring, has not confirmed the finalized sale, Reuters reported. Japanese media first broke the story. According to Nikkei Asian Review, Blackstone acquired Ayumi Pharmaceutical, the producer of painkiller Calonal, in 2019.
Takeda has been selling off non-core assets as it pares down debt from its $62 billion acquisition of Shire. The acquisition of Shire placed about $30 billion of debt on the back of Takeda. The company has been looking to pare down that debt as it adjusts to the new size and scope of its portfolio from the Shire deal. Since the Shire acquisition, Takeda has been looking to sell off about $10 billion worth of non-core assets.
As Takeda sheds those non-core assets and pares down its debt, the company will preserve funds to remain focused on its five key business areas of gastroenterology, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, oncology and neuroscience. The company has also been building its presence in the gene therapy space. In June, Takeda and Carmine Therapeutics inked a deal to develop and commercialize non-viral gene therapies for two rare diseases. In March, Takeda entered a multi-target partnership with Evox Therapeutics to develop protein replacement and mRNA therapies for rare diseases.
Last month, Takeda and Twist Bioscience forged an agreement to expand biologics discovery capabilities and discover, validate and optimize new antibody candidates for a number of different indications. Takeda will have access to Twist’s “Library of Libraries,” a large phage display library created using precisely defined synthetic DNA sequences to discover unique antibodies to important therapeutic targets including GPCRs. Target indications include oncology, rare diseases, neuroscience and gastroenterology.