IMS Company Profiles - Report Buyer

IMS COM PANY PRO FILES TAKEDA
Takeda was fined Euro37.1 mil lion by the EC Com mis sion over vi ta min price-fix ing be tween 1989 and
1999. The to tal fine of Euro855.2 mil lion was the larg est ever im posed on com pa nies op er at ing a car tel in
the EC, which in cluded Roche, BASF, and Daiichi Pharmaceuticals.
Takeda be gan con struc tion of a new Yen17 bil lion genomics R&D fa cil ity in Tsukuba Ja pan, ded i cated to
the anal y sis of gene and pro tein func tion and re gen er a tive gene re search, and speed ing up the de vel op -
ment of genome-based drugs.
TAP Phar ma ceu ti cal Prod ucts pleaded guilty to a crim i nal charge and agreed to pay the larg est ever crim i -
nal fine in a health care fraud case, as in ves ti ga tions con tin ued re gard ing pre scrip tion drug scams and the
il le gal mar ket ing of its anticancer drug Lupron. The com pany agreed to pay $875 mil lion to re solve crim i -
nal and civil charges that it fraud u lently priced and mar keted the prostate cancer drug.
Takeda and Nip pon A&L an nounced that they reached a tie-up agree ment re gard ing Takeda’s syn thetic
rub ber la tex busi ness on July 1. The two com pa nies plan to sign an agree ment which trans fers Takeda’s
syn thetic rub ber la tex busi ness to Nippon A&L.
TAP Phar ma ceu ti cal Prod ucts (a jv be tween Abbott and Takeda) signed a co-pro mo tion deal with Sol vay
(Bel gium) over the Sol vay drug AndroGel (tes tos ter one). Sol vay ini tially ex pected sales of $50 mil lion,
but raised its fore cast to $100 mil lion af ter its Unimed Pharmaceuticals unit signed the co-pro mo tion deal
with TAP.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals North Amer ica, and Lilly an nounced they are un der writ ing and ed u ca tional pro -
gram called Part ners Against In su lin Re sis tance. The ini tia tive is de signed to pro mote aware ness about
in su lin re sis tance and its role in Type 2 di a be tes and re lated com pli ca tions, such as cardiovascular
disease.
Takeda in vited ap pli ca tions for an early re tire ment pro gram sched uled to start in April 2003. The pro gram
is open to work ers aged 35 or over and is pri mar ily aimed at of fer ing var i ous op tions to em ploy ees, in -
clud ing job changes, rather than a re duc tion of la bor ex penses. The com pany has not set a tar get for job
cuts under the program.
TAP con firmed that it was be ing in ves ti gated by the Texas state at tor ney over the mar ket ing and pric ing
of Lupron. TAP is also be ing ex am ined by the US Jus tice De part ment for prac tices such as en cour ag ing
phy si cians to bill in sur ance com pa nies for free sam ples of Lupron (at $400 to $550 per in jec tion). The in -
ves ti ga tion be gan in 1998 in Boston and ru mors of a set tle ment spread in early 2001 af ter TAP said it was
chan nel ing money into a le gal re serve fund. An un em ployed woman from Saitama Pre fec ture was sen -
tenced to two-and-a-half years in jail af ter threat en ing to con tam i nate Takeda’s eye wash prod ucts. Her
ac tions were said to have caused Takeda Yen150 mil lion in losses af ter it was forced to re call its Mytear
SG and Catalin K prod ucts. Ms Fujino also black mailed another Japanese pharmaceutical company,
Santen.
Takeda said it planned to outsource 50% of its phar ma ceu ti cal out put by 2003 (cur rently 30%). The tar -
get will be achieved through the con sol i da tion of pro duc tion of hos pi tal drugs and the clo sure of a plant in
Kanagawa Pre fec ture re spon si ble for man u fac tur ing in ject able drugs. It was orig i nally meant to close in
2005, but this has now been brought for ward to De cem ber 2003. Takeda’s pro duc tion will be shifted to
other com pa nies, both do mes tic and in ter na tional. The com pany said it was tak ing the step due to slow
growth in the do mes tic mar ket and grow ing com pe ti tion from abroad. Hos pi tal drug man u fac ture will be
cen tered on Takeda’s plants in Osaka and Yamaguchi. Its num ber of em ploy ees in volved in pro duc tion
will fall to 700 in 2005, from 1,200, already 25% down from 1998.
Takeda Amer ica sold its en tire stake in Takeda Vi ta min & Food USA to BASF. The price was not dis closed.
The sale fol lowed the July 2000 agree ment be tween the two com pa nies to merge their bulk vi ta min op er -
a tions.
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