Takeda Pharmaceutical has purchased Baxalta's ($BXLT) Brooklyn Park, MN, biologics facility, which the Japanese pharma will use to produce Entyvio, used to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The plant was put on the auction block last year.
The facility also makes other biologic products. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. A core of 42 employees, including management, scientific and technical workers, have been extended offers to remain at the facility, a Takeda spokeswoman told FiercePharmaManufacturing.
Baxalta put the facility up for sale earlier last year following a review of the resources it budgeted across its manufacturing network concluded the Brooklyn Park operation would require significant investments to upgrade its capabilities, a company spokesman said. Baxter ($BAX), which has since spun off Baxalta, bought the 215,000-square-foot facility from Genmab in 2013 and had put some money into improvements.
The Brooklyn Park facility is a mammalian cell culture biologics drug substance operation with two manufacturing trains that are each equipped with cell culture processing capabilities, as well as a dedicated purification train, the company said.
The acquisition "is a very important strategic benefit for Takeda that reinforces and expands upon our global operations for Entyvio and future biologic products," Thomas Wozniewski, Takeda's global manufacturing and supply officer, said in a statement.
With the purchase, Takeda will be able to establish and develop direct commercial biomanufacturing expertise.
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