June 16, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
TOKYO – Christopher Weber, new chief executive officer of Takeda Pharmaceuticals , Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company, entered into a partnership with a Nobel laureate to develop new therapeutics, Bloomberg Business reported this morning.
Weber tapped Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka to develop therapies for conditions such as heart failure and diabetes. The 10-year deal is worth $160 million, the largest between a university and a pharmaceutical company in Japan. The endgame of the deal is to help the company develop new drugs and become a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry, Seigo Izumo, the company’s head of scientific affairs for Japan told Bloomberg. Takeda is facing a nearly 16-year drought of developing its own drugs. Takeda’s profit was at a 15-year low in March 2014, primarily due to generic competition for diabetes drug Actos.
When the Frenchman Weber was tapped to take over the company top spot earlier this year, the first non-Japanese individual to lead the company, he said he was looking to foster deals to help expand the company’s pipeline and international pharmaceutical presence. Weber, the company’s former chief operating officer, helped refocus the company’s pipeline on three key growth drivers -- oncology, gastrointestinal medicine and emerging markets. With no debt, Weber told Reuters the company has room to maneuver the active waters of growth through acquisition. Weber said the company was looking at India as a possible market for its GI and oncology drugs.
“We have now established a presence there to understand the market better,” he said. “It’s a difficult market, very competitive and relatively low-margin, but we cannot ignore India.”
Takeda is also furthering its presence in the United States with the acquisition of U.S. biotech company Millennium, which helped to develop Takeda‘s cancer drug operation into a $3 billion-a-year operation, Reuters noted. However, Takeda did agree to pay $2.4 billion to settle a class action lawsuit involving more than 3,900 plaintiffs surrounding Actos, who allege their use of the medication led to a diagnosis of bladder cancer.
The company’s U.S. arm, Takeda USA is now being led by former Eli Lilly and Company executive Ramona Sequeira.
“The U.S. is a critical market for Takeda‘s future growth, and I am confident that with her strong commercial experience and knowledge of the U.S. healthcare environment, Ramona is the right person to lead this important business unit and play a key role on my leadership team,” Weber said in a statement t following the appointment.
Earlier this month Takeda consolidated its vaccine operations into one facility in Cambridge, Mass. and shutter vaccine operations in Bozeman, Mont., Madison, Wisc. and Fort Collins, Colo.
Additionally, the company’s U.S. vaccine business unit headquartered in Deerfield, Ill. will also be moved to Massachusetts. The operational shift will be conducted over multiple phases and is expected to be completed in mid-2017, the company said. By putting vaccine operations under one roof, the move will allow the company to streamline its development operations and execute pending Phase III programs and eventual commercialization, the company said. The Cambridge campus, along with a site in Zurich, Switzerland, will serve as Takeda’s vaccine business unit hubs for all business outside of Japan. The unit will maintain regional hubs in Singapore and Brazil. Takeda will continue to manufacture its vaccines at sited in Hikari, Japan, Durham, N.C. and Singen, Germany. Takeda launched its vaccine business in 2012 and has developed vaccines for norovirus, dengue and seasonal influenza.
Takeda acquired three of its vaccine sites that will be closing through company acquisitions. The Bozeman site was acquired through Takeda’s acquisition of LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals in 2012. The Madison and Fort Collins sites came to Takeda through the acquisition of Inviragen, Inc. in 2013.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals stock, which trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, was down 28 percent this morning from a high of 6,122 yen per share.
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