IMS Company Profiles - Report Buyer

IMS COM PANY PRO FILES TAKEDA
grow ing strength in on col ogy, in which Mil len nium has a strong pres ence. With sales of $0.5 bil lion in
2007 and net prof its of $15 mil lion, an a lysts con sid ered the bid price for Mil len nium as sur pris ingly high,
but enough to ward off com pe ti tion from other po ten tial coun ter bid ders such as John son & John son,
spec u lated to be a nat u ral con tended due to its co-pro mo tion of anticancer drug Velcade (bortezomib),
Mil len nium’s main stay prod uct. Mil len nium also brings a pipe line con sist ing mainly of on col ogy and in -
flam ma tory drugs. On col ogy ad di tions from Mil len nium in clude: MLN 0518 for glioblastoma and acute
myelocytic leu ke mia and MLN 8237/8054 for ad vanced ma lig nan cies in ad di tion to ex panded in di ca tions
for its main stay prod uct Velcade. Mil len nium has two prod ucts in clin i cal de vel op ment for in flam ma tory
bowel dis ease: MLN 002 for ul cer ative co li tis and Crohn’s dis ease and an oral drug for Crohn’s disease,
MLN 3126. Others in development for inflammation include MLN 3897/3701 for inflammatory disease
and MLN 1202 for atherosclerosis.
Takeda’s ac tive ac qui si tion year also saw the con clu sion of Takeda and Abbott’s jv in the US, TAP in May
2008, with Takeda mak ing a $1.5 bil lion pur chase of Abbott’s 50% share, which merged with Takeda to
be come a wholly owned sub sid iary of Takeda Amer ica Hold ings, Inc. This came hot on the heels of
Takeda’s April 2008 launch of its wholly-owned sub sid iary Takeda Bio De vel op ment Cen ter Lim ited
(Takeda Bio) in Ja pan, which it ac quired from Amgen K.K in ac cor dance with a share trans fer agree ment
be tween Takeda and Amgen in Feb ru ary 2008. Masaomi Miyamoto will chair the board and Hiroyasu
Hakamura will be pres i dent of Takeda Bio which has around 140 em ploy ees with un dis closed cap i tal. The
full cost of the Amgen Ja pan ac qui si tion has not been dis closed but re flects Takeda’s plans to re in force its
pipe line while Amgen can ac cel er ate the development of its products in Japan.
Takeda’s move to buy into the lu cra tive on col ogy set ting re flects other sim i lar strat e gies, in clud ing Eli
Lilly’s $6.5 bil lion pur chase of ImClone Sys tems to ob tain Erbitux (cetuximab) and a pipe line of
early-stage on col ogy prod ucts. The strength of the Yen ver sus the dol lar has also made US com pa nies
par tic u larly at trac tive tar gets and the ac qui si tion of Mil len nium came in the midst of a Jap a nese spend ing
spree of for eign firms. This started with Eisai’s $3.9 bil lion take over of MGI Pharma in the USA in De cem -
ber 2007 through to Shionogi’s Oc to ber 2008 $1.4 bil lion merger with Sciele. Daiichi Sankyo made a $4.6
bil lion pur chase of In dia’s Ranbaxy in June 2008 af ter al ready in vest ing in a Ger man com pany (U3) while
Eisai’s pur chase closely fol lowed two pre vi ous US in vest ments of Morphotek and Ligand, that ex panded
its on col ogy fran chise. Ja pan’s other ma jor player Astellas purchased Agensys for $0.5 billion in 2007.
Takeda has also been ac tively ac quir ing com pa nies in re cent years when 2007 saw the pur chase of Par a -
digm Ther a peu tics (Sin ga pore) build ing on a CNS al li ance started in 2005. Par a digm fo cuses on iden ti fy -
ing small mol e cule tar gets within key gene fam i lies and its pipe line in cludes tar gets and late stage
pre clin i cal pro jects in pain, CNS, hor mone de pend ent dis eases such as pros tate and breast can cer as well
as met a bolic dis ease. Fi nan cial terms were not dis closed. Par a digm will be come a sub sid iary of Takeda
Eu rope Hold ings B.V. a wholly owned sub sid iary of Takeda and Par a digm will be re named Takeda Cam -
bridge Lim ited with the sub sid iary in Sin ga pore re named Takeda Sin ga pore Pte Lim ited.. 2007 also saw
the com ple tion of Wyeth’s buyout of Takeda’s in ter est in Wyeth KK (Jap a nese unit of Wyeth) af ter four
years. The com pa nies re ported that this will have no ef fect on their re la tion ship which re mains strong
with their cur rent co-pro mo tion of Enbrel. In 2005 Takeda made a stra te gic ac qui si tion of pri vate US
biotech com pany Syrrx in a $270 mil lion bid to en hance its R&D op er a tions in the US and pipe line, bring -
ing Takeda one of its most prom is ing new growth prod ucts alogliptin (SYR 322), await ing ap proval in the
US (see R&D). Set up in 1999, San Diego-based Syrrx, which at the time em ployed around 90 people,
was to become a subsidiary of the wholly owned US holding entity, Takeda America Holdings.
The line of ac qui si tions over the past few years has fit ted with Takeda pres i dent’s com ments in 2006 that
al though Takeda would n’t ac quire just to gain bulk, it would con sider ac quir ing com pa nies in any area
where it was clearly de fi cient, and the ac qui si tion “would be quicker than do ing it on our own to catch up”
add ing that Takeda was ac tively seek ing to ac quire com pa nies with ca pa bil i ties to “de velop in ves ti ga -
tional new drugs in our priority fields.”
© 2009 IMS Health In cor po rated or its af fil i ates Page 9