IMS Company Profiles - Report Buyer

IMS COM PANY PRO FILES TAKEDA
The Fed eral Court of Can ada im posed a C$5.2 mil lion fine on Takeda for con spir a cies to fix prices and al lo -
cate mar ket share for two vi ta min prod ucts. The Ca na dian Com pe ti tion Bu reau said Takeda had pleaded
guilty to par tic i pat ing in in ter na tional con spir a cies be tween 1991 and 1995, in volv ing vi ta mins B2 and C.
In ad di tion to the fine, the court im posed a ban on the com pany to pre vent it re peat ing com pe ti tion of -
fenses in Can ada for a pe riod of ten years. Takeda stated that it would post a spe cial loss of Yen400 mil -
lion for the year ending March 31 2000 to cover the fine.
Formed a jv with Schering-Plough’s (USA) Jap a nese sub sid iary, Schering-Plough KK, for an i mal health.
Takeda will trans fer the an i mal health busi ness of its ‘Agro Com pany’ to the new busi ness, which will be
known as Takeda Schering-Plough An i mal Health KK. Takeda be lieved the move would strengthen its ac -
tiv i ties in this area.
It was an nounced that Takeda planned to team up with lo cal firms in other Asian na tions to man u fac ture
and mar ket OTC drugs. It al ready had an agree ment for the gas tro in tes ti nal prod uct Shin Biofermin-S
tab lets in South Ko rea with Dong-A (South Ko rea). By the end of 2000, it planned to sign an agree ment
with a Tianjin-based com pany that will man u fac ture and mar ket its OTC prod ucts in China. Takeda hoped
to grad u ally ex pand such tie-ups with lo cal com pa nies to other Asian nations.
Takeda com pleted the con struc tion of a new pi lot-scale pro duc tion plant on the site of its main fac tory in
Osaka. The fa cil ity will man u fac ture small quan ti ties of com pounds for use in clin i cal tri als and pro duc tion
scale-up stud ies. The com pany is fac ing in creas ing de mand for trial quan ti ties of its com pounds as it in -
creases its in ter na tional development activities.
Takeda and Taisho (Ja pan) agreed to col lab o rate on the de vel op ment of Taisho’s drugs for in ter na tional
markets.
• Year: 1999
Takeda filed law suits against OWL Pharmaceuticals and Oakwood Lab o ra to ries with a US dis trict court
claim ing in fringe ment of 12 pat ents re lated to its leuprorelin de pot for mu la tion. OWL had sub mit ted an
ANDA in the US for a ge neric ver sion of Lupron De pot. The suit called for a halt to ac tiv i ties that in fringe
Takeda’s pat ents and post pone ment of FDA ap proval un til the pat ents ex pire, which ac cord ing to Takeda
will not be until after 2010.
Six phar ma ceu ti cal com pa nies, in clud ing Takeda, agreed a $1.7 bil lion set tle ment with at tor neys rep re -
sent ing US buy ers of bulk vi ta mins, which had filed a class ac tion law suit al leg ing price-fix ing. Takeda’s li -
a bil ity is in the region of $100 million.
Takeda was named as one of 12 Jap a nese com pa nies in a ven ture with the World Health Or ga ni za tion to
de velop antimalaria drugs. These will be phased in within the next ten years to re place ex ist ing treat -
ments, which are not ef fec tive against new strains of the disease.
Takeda an nounced plans to cut the num ber of its do mes tic pro duc tion work ers in half, to 700, by March
2006. Dur ing 2000, the to tal num ber of Takeda em ploy ees was ex pected to fall from 9,100 to 8,500, with
nor mal re tire ments ac count ing for 300 re duc tions by the end of March 2000.
Takeda an nounced that to sell its wholly-owned feed ad di tive sub sid iary, Takeda Kagaku Shiryo Co, to
BASF Ja pan. BASF and Takeda have co op er ated in the ad di tive area since 1997.
Takeda re vealed that it was fac ing a civil law suit in the US with re gard to its in volve ment in an in ter na -
tional car tel that fixed global vi ta min prices. BASF (Ger many) and Roche (Swit zer land) were fined by the
US gov ern ment for their in volve ment. Rhone-Poulenc (now Aventis, France) was ex cused for co op er at -
ing with in qui ries. All the com pa nies faced pri vate suits. Eisai (Ja pan) was also likely to be named as a
defendant.
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