Takeda, which recently announced a $627 million deal to buy biotech TiGenix, is upping its bet on its stem cell therapy, with a new plant and 70 jobs at its manufacturing site in Ireland.
Japan-based Takeda announced Wednesday that it will spend about €25 million ($30.5 million) to build a standalone modular cell therapy facility just to manufacture a novel stem cell therapy at its Grange Castle site near Dublin.
The project, which got support from the Ireland government, is slated to be complete in 2021 and have about 70 workers when production begins.
Takeda in January announced it had struck a €520 million deal to buy Leuven, Belgium-based TiGenix, getting its Cx601, a stem cell therapy and other pipeline drugs, in the process. The deal closing is contingent on the therapy being approved in Europe.
The EMA’s drug review group late last year recommended the allogeneic expanded adipose-derived stem cell therapy for approval for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn’s disease patients.
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Takeda is also looking toward the completion of a phase 3 trial TiGenix initiated to support an approval in the U.S.
This is the second announced investment that Takeda has made in the Ireland operation. In June it said it was investing about $42.8 million on a new plant there to produce its oral multiple myeloma drug Ninlaro, a first-to-market active proteasome inhibitor. It said that facility will be ready to ship the potential blockbuster next year or in early 2019.