Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, Japan’s largest drugmaker, agreed to buy Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc for US$8.8 billion, gaining a blood-cancer medicine before the patent on its best-selling Actos diabetes pill expires in 2011.
Stockholders of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Millennium will receive US$25 a share in cash, 53 percent more than yesterday’s closing price, the two companies said in a statement today. It is Japan’s largest drug acquisition.
Millennium’s cancer treatment Velcade widens the product pipeline Osaka-based Takeda is developing to buffer sales once Actos faces generic competition. Rival Eisai Co agreed in December to buy US drugmaker MGI Pharma Inc for US$3.9 billion to gain more cancer medicines.
“This deal will boost Takeda’s drug-development flow,” said Mitsuo Ohmi, a Tokyo-based analyst at Japan Advisory LLC. “Millennium is a leader in genome medicine, with some promising drugs in early development.”
The US company generated US$265 million in sales last year from Velcade, which is sold in more than 80 countries. Overall revenue climbed 8 percent to US$528 million. Millennium earned US$14.9 million in net income, its first profit since 1998, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Takeda fell 2.5 percent to ¥5,410 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before the announcement. Millennium gained 41 percent in the past year. The takeover premium is more than double the 23 percent Tokyo-based Eisai paid to acquire MGI Pharma.
Japanese drugmakers are expanding outside the world’s second-largest drug market because domestic growth is hampered by a government policy to cut prescription-medicine prices every two years.
“Millennium has strong discovery, development and commercial capabilities led by a well-established management team,” Takeda president Yasuchika Hasegawa said in the statement. “Takeda is committed to becoming a global leader in oncology.”
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
PETITIONS: A Democratic Progressive Party official quoted President William Lai as saying that civil society groups are organizing the recall drives at the grassroots level Some civil society groups yesterday announced that they have collected enough signatures to pass the first-stage threshold to initiate a recall vote against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in 18 constituencies nationwide, saying that they would submit the signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) today. They also said that they expected to pass the threshold in eight more constituencies in the coming days, meaning the number of KMT legislators facing a recall vote could reach 26. The groups set up stations to collect signatures at local marketplaces and busy commercial districts. The legislators their petition drives target include Fu
RSS