Takeda Relocates China Regional HQ and Asia Development Center to Shanghai’s Pudong to Advance High-Quality Biopharma Growth

On October 20, one of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies—Takeda—announced a new initiative in China—Takeda China Regional Headquarters will relocate to Expo Qiantan, along with the new site of Takeda Asian Development Center.That afternoon, Takeda held a grand inauguration ceremony.

Takeda stated that this initiative aims to translate into concrete actions its long-term commitment to taking root in Shanghai, fulfilling its responsibility as a global biopharmaceutical company to advance the biopharmaceutical industry, and improving access to innovative medicines for patients in China.

At this event, Zhu Yi, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce; Shi Yinhua, Deputy Director of the Expo Administration Bureau under the Management Committee of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone; Cao Lei, Deputy Director of the Commerce Commission of Pudong New Area; Du Yanying, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Waigaoqiao Office under the Bonded Zone Administration Bureau of the Management Committee of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone; along with nearly 30 guests from universities, business associations, and the pharmaceutical industry, including Fudan University, the Shanghai Foreign Investment Association, SD Capital, and LYFE Capital, attended the event.

Group Photo of Guests at the Launch Ceremony of the New Takeda China Regional Headquarters and Takeda Asia Development Center

The conference opening was hosted by,Deputy Director Zhao Yuan, Expo Administration, Administrative Committee of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade ZoneDeliver opening remarks.

Address by Zhao Yuan, Deputy Director of the Expo Administrative Bureau, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Management Committee

Deputy Director General Zhao stated that over the past 30 years, Pudong has consistently been a hotspot for foreign investment in China and a window for the country's high-quality opening-up. Both Pudong's development journey and the policy expectations outlined in the newly issued documents have created favorable conditions for the Expo area to attract and cluster the world's top-tier biopharmaceutical enterprises. Looking ahead, the Expo Administration Bureau will fully support Takeda's development in China, accelerate the introduction of innovative products and technologies to benefit Chinese patients, and participate in the development of the biopharmaceutical industry cluster in the Pudong Leading Area.

Next,Mr. Shan Guohong, Global Senior Vice President of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and President of Takeda ChinaHe took the stage to deliver a speech, sharing his feelings at this moment as the head of Takeda China.

Address by Mr. Dan Guohong, Senior Vice President, Global and President, Takeda China

“Takeda is both an ‘old’ and a ‘young’ company. As for being ‘old’, Takeda has a history of 240 years since its founding. As for being ‘young’, it grew into a top-10 global biopharmaceutical company just over two years ago, and is also the only top-10 global biopharmaceutical company to have originated in Asia.”

Takeda entered China in 1994, marking 27 years of operations in the country to date. As early as 2012, Takeda established its China Regional Headquarters and Takeda Asia Development Center in Shanghai. Beginning in 2015, the company committed a cumulative investment of RMB 1.5 billion over five years as a dedicated fund to support new drug development initiatives in China. In 2017, the Takeda Asia Development Center was elevated to become one of the four key global development regions. Since 2018, the center has accelerated its integration into Takeda’s global R&D network. By incorporating China into the early stages of drug development, Takeda has progressively achieved the simultaneous development of all new drugs in both China and globally.

“Over the past 20-plus years, we have preliminarily completed the development of a comprehensive ecosystem. Takeda closely monitors and maintains a long-term positive outlook on China’s development. We believe that over the next 10 to 20 years, China will become one of the birthplaces of global biopharmaceutical innovation. We are currently formulating Takeda’s next ‘Five-Year Plan’,By 2031, we aim for China to become Takeda's second-largest global market.——This means we must maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 20% for at least the next decade. Therefore, consistently launching innovative products is undoubtedly the key to our growth, and it is also where Takeda’s core strength lies. It is precisely against this backdrop that we have decided to establish our regional headquarters in Shanghai’s Expo Qiantan area, and officially relocate to the new premises alongside the Takeda Asia Development Center.”

Following Mr. Shan Guohong's speech, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on site, ushering in a "new chapter" for Takeda China and the Takeda Asia Development Center in the vibrant district of Qiantan, Pudong.

Guests Perform On-Site Ribbon-Cutting at the Inauguration Ceremony of the New Site for Takeda China Regional Headquarters and Takeda Asia Development Center

Afterwards, proceed to another parallel session,Renowned Economist Lu Xiongwen, Dean of the School of Management, Fudan UniversityAttended the event in person and delivered a keynote speech titled "Innovation-Driven Development in the New Development Paradigm".

Speech by Lu Xiongwen, Renowned Economist and Dean of the School of Management, Fudan University

President Lu stated that with the outbreak of the pandemic, the VUCA era (an era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) has arrived, and the world is reshaping the new international economic order. As the global economic structure undergoes restructuring, digital transformation and upgrading based on big data, cloud computing, and 5G communications have become the foundation for national survival and development. Global development is becoming increasingly "boundaryless," with industrial and corporate boundaries broken down, enabling highly agile restructuring and integration. The future mission and path of China's scientific and technological innovation lie in the synergy and integration of the whole-nation system and grassroots initiative, which will together generate a massive wave of sci-tech innovation. The development of the sci-tech innovation sector and its enterprises will powerfully propel China to become a global innovation powerhouse and a world-leading nation in science and technology, thereby spearheading the wave of the next industrial revolution. Furthermore, management education in sci-tech innovation comprehensively empowers enterprises to achieve sustainable development.

Following this, Mr. Shan Guohong, under the theme "An Extraordinary Year, an Extraordinary Takeda," introduced Takeda China's future development.“Five-Year Plan”, including launching over 15 innovative drugs within the next five years, benefiting more than 10 million Chinese patients, becoming a top 10 multinational pharmaceutical company in China, expanding market and channel coverage, strengthening capacity building, enhancing drug accessibility and patient service capabilities, and aiming to make China Takeda's second-largest global market by 2030, among other objectives.

“In the future, Takeda will focus onR&D, Services, Digitalization"...and other key areas, together with industry peers to jointly build a diversified cooperative innovation system." Mr. Shan Guohong stated,Takeda China Innovation Ecosystem Incubation PlatformWe will partner with industry-leading collaborators to focus on three major digital innovation areas (diagnostic/screening solutions, drug + digital health products, and data analytics and infrastructure) to co-create digital healthcare solutions.

Theme:“Innovation and Integration: Advancing the High-Quality Development of Shanghai’s Biopharmaceutical Industry Cluster”The roundtable discussion was held at the event venue. Representatives from industry promotion centers, intellectual property, R&D, capital, and patient organizations explored how to address the needs of Chinese patients for innovative healthcare, leverage Shanghai's high-quality development in optimizing the policy environment, innovating service systems, and building a talent hub, to drive the entire industry ecosystem toward a higher-standard upgrade.

Panel Discussion on "Innovation and Integration: Deepening the High-Quality Development of Shanghai's Biomedical Industry Cluster"

Among them,Dr. Wang Lin, Head of Takeda Asia Development CenterWhen asked about Takeda's current primary focus in innovation, she provided three keywords—namely, "differentiated innovation," "patient-centric innovation," and "global innovation."

Dr. Wang Lin, Head of Takeda Asia Development Center, Participates in Panel Discussion

“Differentiated Innovation”refers to Takeda's consistent R&D-driven approach, focusing on developing first-in-class (First-in-class) or best-in-class (Best-in-class) products.“Patient-Centered Innovation”refers to Takeda's consistent emphasis on the quality of pharmaceutical innovation, always adhering to “Meet the unmet clinical needs of patients” innovative R&D model, aimed at transforming the R&D culture and integrating patient needs into the R&D process, to ensure that the drugs developed by the company are truly valuable to patients.

About"Global Innovation", Dr. Wang Lin stated that the Takeda Asia Development Center is actively promoting China's early integration into global drug development, leveraging "China speed" to advance global pharmaceutical innovation; meanwhile, Takeda consistently maintains an open and collaborative mindset, closely partnering with all stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem and leveraging its scientific expertise to accelerate the translation of research outcomes into transformative or curative innovative medicines.

“We hope to seize the opportunities presented by the new wave of innovation in China, explore potential collaboration opportunities in next-generation cutting-edge technologies, cell and gene therapies, and digitalization, and develop diverse innovative partnership models by working closely with local partners. By effectively integrating Takeda’s global resources, leading innovation platforms, and comprehensive management expertise with China’s local innovation resources, we aim to strengthen China’s drug development capabilities and jointly drive the high-quality development of China’s biopharmaceutical industry,” said Dr. Wang Lin.

It is reported that at the upcoming 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE), Takeda will showcase innovative products and breakthrough therapies in the fields of oncology, gastroenterology, rare diseases, neuroscience, and plasma-derived therapies; its novel lung cancer drug, mobocertinib, and icatibant acetate injection for the acute treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE) attacks, will also be prominently featured at the Takeda Pharmaceutical booth. Stay tuned.