Dialogue with President of Takeda global R & D: is Takeda a M & A or R & D enterprise?

"Before we mentioned that China joined the world, today we want China to help or even lead the world!" At a media communication meeting held by the center on October 29, Wang Yu, head of the center, said The company's ambitions in the Chinese market are growing as it completes a large number of acquisitions and sales around the world "At present, the acquisition of shire has been completed and the business in China has been merged." Since last year's $62 billion cetacean, Takeda's current global R & D pipeline has 40 compounds at the clinical stage, Wang told e drug managers "These 40 compounds will come to China in the future, 25 of which have plans in China, Takeda's global pipeline is equal to China's pipeline." The Japanese company, which has developed into a global pharmaceutical enterprise through overseas M & A, aims to transform itself into a global leading innovative pharmaceutical enterprise, and its strategy in China has been upgraded in recent years As a representative of Asian pharmaceutical enterprises going global, how will he review his development path after completing the US $62 billion acquisition? When asked about the R & D plan for China, Andrew plump, President of Takeda global R & D, confessed to e pharmaceutical managers: "in the past, the drugs listed in China really lagged behind, so Takeda put forward the" catch up "plan in China before." In 2014, Christophe Weber, Takeda's first non Japanese CEO, took office and formally put forward China's catch up plan, aiming to introduce foreign Takeda products that have been listed in China Since 2015, there will be fixed special funds to support global R & D in China every year In 2017, Takeda officially moved the headquarters of the Asian Development Center from Singapore to Shanghai Now, China has become one of the four core R & D areas of Takeda, aiming to gradually realize the synchronous new drug R & D with Europe, the United States and Japan "We are upgrading China's development strategy from 1.0 to 2.0." At the communication meeting, Wang said that since 2015, Takeda has set up special funds to support the development of new drugs in China every year for five consecutive years At present, this part of investment can bring six new drugs and 13 indications into China After the acquisition of shire in 2019, special funds will be set up to support the accelerated development of 11 new drugs and 12 indications in China to catch up with the global pace At present, Takeda has three drugs listed in the first batch of clinically urgent overseas drugs, two of which have been submitted for new drug approval, one is in the process of submission preparation, and the repagal in the second batch of list has also been submitted As for development strategy 2.0, Wang introduced that China, like the United States, Japan and Europe, as one of the four key regions of Takeda's global R & D, has participated in the global drug development from the early stage, realized the synchronous development with the United States, Japan and Europe, and submitted new drug applications At present, 25 of the 40 clinical research products in Takeda have Chinese plans, including 6 tumor products, 6 digestive products, 4 rare disease products and 9 neuroscience products Asked how to select 25 products, Wang told e drug managers that 40 products would be introduced into China Andrew plump also said: "the future strategy is that all new pipelines and new drugs of Takeda in the world will be brought into China, which is part of our global strategy." Wang Yu also said that China's data is also helping the global development of new drugs "In recent years, China has introduced a series of favorable policies that have transformed China from a global player in drug development into a facilitator, or even a navigator." In May of last year, the innovative drug enray, owned by Takeda China, officially entered the Chinese market, combining lenalidomide and dexamethasone to treat adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one previous treatment The approval of Enrique is more than two years slower than that of the United States, but it is worth noting that the drug is the first drug approved in China for the ductility test Wang explained that China wants to join the global clinical trials, but because the time of global patients' enrollment can not fully meet the requirements of Chinese patients, Takeda continued China's enrollment time to meet the requirements of China's number of patients for registration, accelerating the approval and listing in China Secondly, Enrique's total survival data in China helped it to be approved in the EU, because China's total survival data is the first data to prove that Enrique has a significant help to the survival of patients In addition, tak-788 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer is the first drug developed by Takeda in China and around the world, and China has become the first country to complete the enrollment of patients Wang said that China plays a leading role in the global clinical development of the drug Three months after the application of tak-935 experimental new drug for the treatment of epileptogenic encephalopathy was approved, the first patient screening began As of September, 27 patients were recruited in China, ranking first in the world "How can we bring effective drugs to Chinese patients as soon as possible if we want to synchronize China with the world?" Wang said that excellent clinical operation is also very important High quality Chinese data is conducive to global drug development China has been at the forefront of the world's drug development In terms of clinical trials, Takeda's data in China supports EU registration, and also leads the current leading or best of its kind drug research and development, playing a leading role in the world 40 clinical stage compounds, China's early participation in research and development, and becoming the main force in the world, all of which show that Takeda has put forward a grand vision in China, but on the other hand, there is still a lack of clinical development talents in China E pharmaceutical managers interviewed several multinational pharmaceutical companies, clinical development and human resources director said that the current clinical talent in China is indeed lacking, and also because of the rise of local innovative pharmaceutical companies Takeda Asia Development Center has more than 60 employees, which is obviously a small volume among MNCs Since 2015, Takeda has conducted more than 50 clinical trials in Asia (except Japan), of which more than 30 have been conducted in China In addition, due to the improvement of development strategy, 25 products have Chinese development plan Facing such a huge plan, Wang told e pharmaceutical manager that Takeda adopts the cooperation mode "In terms of clinical operation, we work with cro institutions to supervise their work Compared with other multinational pharmaceutical companies, our investment in the project is higher, which is why Takeda can have such an innovative and full global product line in the short term The Asian Development Center model is also consistent with Takeda's overall R & D strategy " "Reduce investment in fixed infrastructure and improve overall efficiency through cooperation." Andrew plump added In terms of global R & D, Takeda invests 20% of its revenue in R & D every year, about 2 / 3 of which is used in projects and about 1 / 3 in infrastructure But in the face of a huge introduction plan, Takeda's clinical development team and its partners will face a big test As a Japanese pharmaceutical company, it is likely to become the first Asian Pharmaceutical Company to enter the top ten in the world after the acquisition of shire this year Takeda, who started the global journey with me too drugs, faced a severe test in its development mode after FDA tightened its grip on me too drugs at the beginning of this century After the first step of global expansion was focused on the United States, Takeda started the acquisition mode after encountering the policy change of the country In 2005, Takeda ate Syrrx in San Diego for $270 million Takeda's attempt, however, paid off handsomely He not only obtained a number of hypoglycemic drugs under research, represented by the DPP-4 inhibitor agliptin, but also obtained advanced X-ray crystal analysis technology Starting from Syrrx company, establish R & D center in the United States Takeda again bought Millennium Pharma, a Massachusetts based biotech company focused on research and development of anti-tumor and inflammatory drugs, for $8.8 billion in 2008 Takeda has a record of acquisition in 2011 and 2012 Almost every acquisition brings Takeda good products and rich income, which are used to resist the risk of patent cliff Although the sales volume of new products is good, it still cannot offset the loss caused by the decline of sales volume of the three heavyweights In addition to the carcinogenic disturbance of Actos, Takeda experienced a short-term loss, but then stopped the decline through acquisition again in 2017 and 2018 Last year's acquisition of shire became the largest one for Asian pharmaceutical companies, but the amount of acquisition almost exceeded the sum of major acquisitions over the years, with $62 billion even far exceeding the market value of Takeda's US shares Although most of the previous acquisitions have been successful, the industry is still observing whether such a large amount of acquisitions can bring considerable profits and balanced finance to Takeda Although the total amount of Takeda's enterprises acquired over the years is close to US $100 billion, Takeda's R & D investment in the last decade is still around 20%, and the total investment in R & D after 2000 has exceeded US $45 billion It can be seen that Takeda has never spared money no matter in M & A or R & D So is Takeda a R & D enterprise or a merger and acquisition enterprise? "We are now a real leader in international pharmaceutical industry, not only through M & A, but also through transformation and innovation, which makes us a real leader." Andrew plump describes Takeda's role in this way After the acquisition of shire, Takeda has largely stripped off some non core products in the world, such as the sale of ophthalmic drugs to Novartis, the sale of surgical bleeding control products to Johnson's subsidiaries, the sale of all shares of Guangdong techpool biochemical in China, and the sale of some prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs in Russia, Western Europe and Latin America Takeda reconfigured its pipeline and listed product portfolio through acquisitions and sales Andrew plump said: "80% of our R & D investment is focused on innovative biopharmaceuticals Our R & D for innovative biopharmaceuticals focuses on four major disease areas - tumor, rare disease, neuroscience, digestive disease, which have one thing in common - need to be innovative or curative, meet the clinical high demand, and be able to target the very accurate patient population " At present, it seems that many of Takeda's products close to the market are in line with the position of the world's largest rare disease drug company For example, China's tak-788, which was the first to complete the key research, is aimed at non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that inhibits the insertion mutation of epidermal growth factor by exon 20 This disease accounts for only 2% of NSCLC, while its patient base in Asia is relatively large Currently, there is no effective drug targeting this target, which is a first in class product In addition, pevonedistat for high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome / chronic myeloid leukemia is also the first innovative drug in this field in ten years "Takeda style innovation is differentiated innovation, making first-in-class or best-in-class products, bringing innovative treatment solutions to patients around the world." When asked about Takeda's core and advantages, Andrew plump said that at present, 50% of the products on Takeda's pipeline are identified as orphan drugs "Eight of the best or leading new compounds of the same kind (NME) are undergoing key clinical trials." "Takeda is one of the few multinational pharmaceutical companies without PD-1 / L1 products, which is good news and bad news