Takeda Sells Asia-Pacific Rights to 18 Non-Core Drugs to Celltrion for $278 Million

Compiled by Fan Dongdong

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Divests Part of Its Business Again to Help Repay the Huge Debt Incurred from the Acquisition of Shire

On June 11, Takeda announced that it would sell its portfolio of 18 over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medicines marketed in the Asia-Pacific region to the South Korean pharmaceutical company Celltrion. The total transaction amount is $278 million, comprising $266 million in upfront cash payments and $12 million in potential milestone payments. Consistent with several previous divestitures, the rights to the sold products fall outside Takeda’s selected core therapeutic areas: gastroenterology, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, oncology, and neuroscience.

Specifically, the portfolio of products being sold includes various over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription products in the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and general medicine. These products are primarily marketed in Australia, Hong Kong (China), Macau (China), Taiwan (China), Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. Takeda stated that in the fiscal year ended March 2019, the total sales of the 18 divested products amounted to approximately USD 140 million, with the diabetes medication Nesina and the hypertension medication Edarbi standing out as the top sellers.

Takeda expects the transaction to be completed by the end of this year. Upon completion, Takeda will remain responsible for the manufacturing and production of these products and supply them to Celltrion for commercialization.

Prior to this, Takeda had already divested at least $7.7 billion in non-core assets, with the most recent transaction occurring in April, when it sold its European over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription drug portfolio to Orifarm for $670 million. Earlier, Takeda sold the dry eye medication Xiidra (lifitegrast) to Novartis for $5.3 billion and divested multiple products to Acino, Hypera Pharma, and Stada Arzneimittel.

In recent years, Takeda has aggressively divested non-core businesses to raise funds, aiming to achieve a $10 billion asset sale target in order to alleviate the tens of billions of dollars in debt incurred from its acquisition of Shire. The Nikkei Asian Review recently reported that Takeda is planning to sell its non-Japanese consumer health division for approximately ¥400 billion (about $3.7 billion). During a conference call last month, Takeda CEO Christophe Weber acknowledged that consumer health is not a core business for Takeda.

Reference Source:

1、Takeda offloads some non-core assets in Asia Pacific to Celltrion

2、Takeda, debt in mind, offloads 18 drugs in Asia Pacific to Celltrion for $278M