Takeda to pull out of cell therapy development

Japan’s largest drugmaker Takeda (TYO: 4502) today revealed that, as part of a strategic portfolio prioritization process, it has made the decision to discontinue its cell therapy efforts.

Takeda said it will seek an external partner to leverage its cell therapy platform technologies and to further advance the company’s research and clinic-ready programs in this field. The company has no current active clinical trials utilizing cell therapy technology.

The company explained that it will refocus near-term investments into programs that it believes can deliver transformative therapies to patients at increased speed and scale. The company’s pre-clinical programs utilizing its in-focus modalities, including small molecules, biologics, and antibody-drug conjugates, are advancing novel and highly innovative therapeutic candidates. Takeda’s pre-clinical research programs will continue to benefit from the novel insights gained from its cell therapy research.