Takeda buys up biotech Millennium

pharmafile | April 14, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing |   

Takeda has acquired US biotech company Millennium in an effort to boost its global presence in oncology.

The Japanese firm will pay out $8.8 billion cash in the deal, and obtain Millennium's US marketing rights to cancer drug Velcade.

Millennium will become part of the Takeda group, while maintaining its own name and operations base in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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The two companies believe they have complimentary research, development and commercialisation capabilities, and the potential to create a strong new pipeline.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, the president of Takeda, said: "Millennium greatly strengthens Takeda's global oncology portfolio, led by the flagship product Velcade, and further enhances its pipeline with clinically differentiated, high-quality product candidates."

Millennium is developing a pipeline in oncology and inflammation, and has a potential therapy for inflammatory bowel disease that is expected to enter phase III clinical trials in late 2008.

Its lead product Velcade was co-developed by Ortho Biotech, the biotech arm of Janssen-Cilag, which markets the drug in Europe. It has been available in the UK since May 2004, though first suffered from slow uptake without approval from NICE.

After initially rejecting Velcade, NICE has now approved a revolutionary money-back scheme for the NHS, in an agreement that sees Janssen-Cilag refund the cost of the drug for patients who fail to respond to it.

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