Takeda to concentrate US vaccine sites in Boston/Cambridge area in Massachusetts
Will close existing vaccine facilities Bozeman, Fort Collins, Madison and Deerfield
Takeda Pharmaceutical will concentrate its Vaccine Business Unit (VBU) operations in the US in the Boston/Massachusetts area as the Japanese pharmaceutical company continues to expand its norovirus, dengue and seasonal influenza vaccine programmes.
The company said it will close its vaccine facility in Bozeman, MT, which it obtained through the US$60m purchase of Ligocyte Pharmaceuticals in 2012, as well as the Madison, WI and Fort Collins, CO sites, which came to Takeda through the $250m acquisition of Inviragen in 2013.
In addition, the current vaccine activities in Deerfield, IL, which serve as the global headquarters for VBU, will move to Boston/Cambridge.
Takeda said the consolidation will occur in phases over the next two years, with completion by the middle of 2017.
This consolidation will help us to achieve the efficiency and operational excellence needed to execute the Phase III clinical programmes
As part of the plan, the Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts area, and Zurich, Switzerland will be VBU’s global hubs for the vaccine business outside Japan. VBU will maintain regional hubs in Singapore and in Brazil and will operate manufacturing sites in Hikari, Japan; Durham, NC, US and Singen, Germany.
In the US, all vaccine activities, with the exception of manufacturing, will move to the new global hub in the Boston/Cambridge area. The company said this co-location 'will significantly enhance communication and collaboration across VBU’s divisions, and will allow VBU to leverage Takeda’s significant R&D presence in Cambridge'.
Rajeev Venkayya, President of Takeda’s Vaccine Business Unit, said: 'Takeda remains fully committed to the development of innovative vaccines that improve the lives of people around the world, including our norovirus, dengue and seasonal influenza candidate vaccines.
'Our sites in Bozeman, Fort Collins, Madison and Deerfield have been instrumental in bringing our dengue and norovirus programmes to late stages of clinical development. This consolidation will help us to achieve the efficiency and operational excellence needed to execute the Phase III clinical programmes and set the stage for global commercialisation of these vaccines.'