Dive Brief:
- Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical has completed construction on a suite of new manufacturing facilities at its Oranienburg, Germany, site, a step forward in the company's push to expand its global reach.
- Takeda expects the new facilities, which cost €100 million to build, will begin operating by the end of 2017. Greater capacity at Oranienburg is key to Takeda's ongoing shift of solid dosage form production from its Osaka plant to the Oranienburg and Hikari centers.
- Cost of construction of the new production sites was covered in part by €23 million in subsidies from the Brandenburg state and German federal government.
Dive Insight:
Under CEO Christophe Weber, Takeda has restructured its R&D operations and revamped its cancer division Takeda Oncology — capped by a $5.2 billion acquisition of Ariad Pharmaceuticals in January.
Underpinning each move is an effort to put Takeda on a more global footing and focus investment on its core areas of oncology, gastroenterology, and the central nervous systems. With a tightening price environment in Japan, growth could come more easily abroad. The U.S. is already Takeda's largest market by sales, closely edging out its home market of Japan.
But Takeda clearly is envisioning a larger presence, as the Ariad acquisition underscores.
Boosting R&D performance will help. To that end, Takeda has rolled out plans for a $725 million restructuring and inked a number of partnerships and joint ventures to bolster drug discovery and development.
Expanded production capacity at Oranienburg will allow Takeda to meet increased global demand as newer products grow, the company said in a statement.
Oranienburg already manufactures drugs across Takeda's portfolio, including pantoprazole and Trintellix (vortioxetine).