Amgen and Takeda - Billion-dollar deals

Who: Amgen
With: Takeda
What: $1 billion licensing deal

Scoop: 2007 was a rough year for Amgen. Safety problems plagued the company's bestselling anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen, causing sales of the drugs to plummet. Amgen restructured and cut jobs in an effort to cut expenses in the wake of falling profits. Amgen also said it had more drug candidates in its pipeline than it could develop, and Takeda was willing to take the targets off Amgen's hands. Takeda gained 13 experimental therapies in a deal that may be worth more than $1 billion. The move marks Takeda's entry into the biologics market.

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