April 1, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited , based in Osaka, Japan, and Jerusalem, Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced today that they are establishing a joint company, Teva Takeda Yakuhin, to market generics in Japan.
The companies indicate that Teva Takeda Yakuhin was created by changing the name of Taisho Pharm. Ind., a subsidiary of Teva. Taisho runs a generic drug business that handles Takeda’s long listed products (LLP) division.
On Dec. 28, 2015, Takeda and Teva developed a partnership that focused on generics. Takeda was splitting off its off-patented and data exclusivity expired products business, in other words the LLP business, which was to be succeeded by the Japanese subsidiaries of Teva.
In that statement, the companies said, “The new business venture of Teva Takeda Pharma and Teva Takeda Yakuhin, to be established in or after April 2016, will deliver Teva’s high-quality generic medicines and Takeda’s long listed products to patients and healthcare professionals in Japan. Its aim is to become a leading off-patent product (including generic medicines and long listed products) company in Japan, leveraging Takeda’s corporate brand and the unique distribution network that has been built through Takeda’s longstanding business in Japan, and Teva’s wide product portfolio and cutting-edge business efficiency.”
“We are delighted to begin this new business venture with Teva in Japan,” said Masato Iwasaki, president of Takeda’s Japan Pharma Business Unit, in a statement. “Takeda’s leading brand reputation and strong distribution presence in Japan combined with Teva’s global supply chain and production network, expertise in commercial deployment and R&D, and the understanding of science, brings forward a new, collaborative business model in line with government objectives and ultimately serving millions of patients.”
This new business will be run by Hiroshi Matsumori, who will be chief executive officer and president of Teva Pharma Japan. He will start on April 25 and the business will be located in Nagoya, Japan.
“Japan is one of the fastest growing generics markets in the world,” said Siggi Olafsson, president and chief executive officer of Teva Global Generic Medicines, in a statement, “and we expect its high growth to continue driven by social requirements such as increased patients’ needs for a stable supply of affordable high quality medicines and reduction of healthcare expenditures. We believe that we can contribute to the healthcare industry, medical professionals and most important, patients in Japan.”
The last year has been big for Teva. In July, Teva acquired Allergan plc ’s generic drug business for $40.5 billion. That’s about a 10 percent ownership stake in Allergan, which will be owned by Pfizer plc , once the Pfizer-Allergan deal is completed.
The Teva-Allergan is expected to be completed in the first half of this year. The Pfizer-Allergan deal is expected to close in the second half.
