Takeda announces influenza vaccines project
Receives funding that will allow collaboration with Baxter to be extended
Leading Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Company has received a JPY3.6bn (US$43m; €34m) government subsidy to support a cell culture-based influenza development project for pandemic influenza vaccines.
The investment will be used to set up process development and testing facilities for the production of vaccine and the development work needed to advance cell culture-based influenza vaccines through clinical testing and licensure.
Takeda said the funding would enable it to expand initial development work started in collaboration with Baxter International, based on Baxter’s Vero cell culture technology.
Baxter, of Illinois, US, is a leader in cell culture-based vaccine technology and one of the few companies in the world with a licensed cell culture-based pandemic influenza vaccine.
‘As the only pharmaceutical manufacturer in Japan that conducts the development, production, and marketing of paediatric vaccines, Takeda has a proven track record of providing a stable supply of such vaccines over the past 60 years,’ said Yasuchika Hasegawa, president and chief executive of Takeda.
‘We will expand such paediatric vaccines business to regions outside of Japan, in particular other Asian markets. The development of pandemic influenza vaccine has become Japan’s most pressing need right now and we will expedite clinical development, technology transfer, and establishment of production measures for that vaccine in Japan.’
