Takeda and Teva set out generics joint venture plan
pharmafile | January 4, 2016 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Takeda, Teva, generics, joint ventureÂ
Takeda and Teva have detailed plans for a new joint venture to create a new company to market off-patent generic drugs.
The agreement will see Takeda transfer several off-patent drugs to a new business co-owned by the two companies, in a move which the Japanese company says will allow it to better focus on developing new drugs.
The new business venture, to be established in or after April 2016, will deliver Teva’s generic medicines and some of Takeda’s products to the Japanese market.
Takeda’s drugs Blopress (candesartan), Takepron (lansoprazole) and Basen (voglibose) will be transferred to the new business. The products were worth 125 billion Yen (£710 million) in the financial year 2014, accounting for 7% of the company’s global revenue.
A third player in the venture is another Japanese company, Taisho Pharma, which will receive the off-patent Takeda drugs in return for shares in Teva, which in turn will become Taisho’s parent company. Teva has owned a majority stake in Taisho since 2010.
The venture will be majority-owned by Israel’s Teva, which will own 51% of the company, while 49% will be owned by Takeda, consisting of Teva Takeda Pharma (formerly Teva Pharma, which will continue its generics business) and Teva Takeda Yakuhin (formerly Taisho).
Takeda said it expects its FY2016 revenue to decrease by some 50 billion Yen (about $284 million) as a result of the strategy, but anticipates that the transaction will be financially beneficial over the long-term, due to growth of the generic business and the addition of products from Takeda and Teva to the new business venture.
Takeda said the new venture would help meet the wide-ranging needs of patients and correspond to the growing importance of generics to the Japanese drugs market. Japan is one of the world’s fastest-growing generics drugs markets, largely as a result of the government having set a target of 80% generic penetration by 2020.
Despite the projected decrease in revenues for Japan’s largest pharma company by sales, Takeda expects to be better placed to deliver ‘innovative’ new products, according to Masato Iwasaki, president of Takeda’s Japan Pharma Business Unit, who comments: “Takeda will further strengthen its initiative as a leading company in the Japanese pharmaceutical industry, leveraging our activities to lead innovation in medicine as well as supporting the new company’s business.”
“Of course we want to remain the largest drugmaker in Japan, but sales are not everything,” a Takeda representative adds. “We want to be comprehensively evaluated, including by the quality of the medicines we sell and our ability to provide information to doctors.”
Joel Levy
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