Takeda Pharmaceutical ($TKPHF) has scored again with its home government, this time winning a ¥23.9 billion ($311 million) subsidy to develop an advanced commercial production facility for new influenza vaccines. The funds, which follow a subsidy Takeda won a year ago, build on a relationship formed between the Japanese drugmaker and Baxter International ($BAX).
In the current project, Takeda will ready for full-scale manufacturing. The company will build a commercial production facility with the goal of winning a new drug approval by the end of fiscal 2013.
The funding follows that from a year ago, when the objective was development and production of pandemic flu vaccines. Takeda at that time began developing Baxter's technology for influenza vaccines for licensure in Japan. Takeda developed experimental production facilities for Baxter's Vero cell culture technology and purification techniques.
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