Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) recently said that it has accepted the offer of takeover by Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Japan, in a deal worth $5.2 billion. This makes it another Massachusetts based biotech to be acquired by the Japanese company, Takeda.
Takeda eyeing the U.S. market for comprehensive product line
The deal is important for this Japanese conglomerate that is looking for an extensive range of products in its portfolio. Ariad has a rick past and history of 26 long years of withstanding. It comes into the market with its lung cancer treatment that is seeking an approval in the U.S. and also has a blood cancer drug, which is already approved and is being sold.
Earlier, Takeda acquired Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2008, in a deal worth $8.8 billion. It now has its own research center, which is situated at Millennium site in Cambridge. It is also the global cancer drug business headquarters for Takeda.
Takeda eyes broadening hematology drugs portfolio
Ariad takeover is strategically important for Takeda since it will add more hematology drugs to the portfolio of Japanese company. The research and the presence in the U.S. is enhanced for Takeda. The company’s chief medical and scientific officer Andy Plump said that Takeda has almost six cancer drugs that are sold across the globe. However, it has just two of these in the U.S.
This deal will allow Takeda to get the Iclusig rights, along with the rights of its experimental lung cancer drug, brigatinib. Ariad is looking for an FDA nod for brigatinib in the coming few months.
Ariad-Takeda deal profitable for Ariad’s shareholders
The deal is important for the company’s shareholders, who are seeing this as a way of profitable exit. The company has been having a bitter path in the market ever since its drug Iclusig, for chronic myeloid leukemia plunged.
The deal however, also means that Massachusetts is losing ground to Takeda. The cancer drug makers have been agreeing to global buyouts here.