Struggling under the weight of falling anemia drug sales, Amgen is selling the Japanese rights to a slate of some 13 experimental therapies to Takeda in a deal that may be worth more than $1 billion. For Takeda, which is putting up $200 million upfront and $340 million in worldwide research costs, the pact marks a major lunge into the biologics market.
The deal includes $362 million in milestones payments and a deal to to acquire Amgen KK, Amgen's Japanese subsidiary. And in a separate deal, Takeda has signed on to partner with Amgen on the cancer drug motesanib. Takeda will play $100 million up front and $175 million in a schedule of milestone paydays. Amgen announced plans to out-license some of its drugs last summer, when weakening sales forced the company to launch its first-ever cost-cutting move. "We have more assets in our pipeline than we can develop ourselves," said Amgen CEO Kevin W. Sharer recently.
- see this release
- here's the article from The New York Times
ALSO: Take a look at Amgen's pipeline. Report