Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Health
Takeda Pharmaceutical, Major Drug Company, Plans to Leave Bay Area
Posted
By Laura Rena Murray
on Tue, May 22, 2012 at 3:10 PM
Japan's largest drug manufacturer will be closing its research lab in South San Francisco come next January.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited will be consolidating its two California subsidiaries into one office based in San Diego. The South San Francisco-based lab opened in November 2007, not long after the company set up shop in San Diego in 2005. The labs focused on discovering new antibody therapies, tackling cancer and diabetes.
Drug manufacturers have
butted heads with San Francisco before. But that's not why Takeda is splitting town.
Takeda predicted a 40 percent drop in operating profit due to its acquisition costs and increased research expenses. According to
Bloomberg, the company has already announced acquisitions totaling $13 billion this year in order to recover from declining sales of its popular diabetes treatment,
Actos.
The company has not yet announced how many jobs will be eliminated with the upcoming move, but this is just a part of its global downsizing. Takeda will be cutting 9 percent of its workforce and of the 2,800 employees who slated to lose their jobs, about 700 are based in the United States.
The new subsidiary, Takeda California, will focus on research and manufacturing new antibody therapies for cancer, inflammatory and metabolic diseases. In a press release, the company says shutting its doors in the Bay Area and consolidating the two labs will "improve operational efficiency."
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Tags: Actos, pharmaceutical companies, Takeda, Takeda California, Image