Millennium-Takeda: A nimble biotech with a global footprint
The USD 8.8 billion acquisition of Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, Mass.) in 2008 by Takeda Pharmaceutical (Osaka, Japan) brought a small change to the company name yet proved to be a game-changer for the biotech’s scientists and business development team.
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy, Millennium-Takeda
Anna Protopapas smiles recalling the deal she put together with Seattle Genetics around the molecule SGN-35.
“It was one of the first major deals we did as part of a pharma company with a global footprint,” she said, and demonstrates on several levels how the integration with Takeda reshapes Millennium.
Protopapas led Millennium business development through dozens of agreements, but always as a biotech innovator facing off with large pharma, such as Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough, or Glaxo SmithKline.
“Having been until recently in Seattle Genetics shoes as a company trying to build commercial infrastructure, we were very aware of what Seattle Genetics needed in the partnership to achieve its own objectives,” she said.
“It was very similar, in fact, to a relationship we had put together in 2003 around our product VELCADE, except that this time we were in the shoes of our pharma partner,” she said.
Protopapas likes the feel of these new shoes, which she says provides Millennium with a global presence in the oncology market.
“Joining with Takeda really allows us to do a lot more than what we were able to do as a smaller biotech company,” she said.
“In negotiating as part of a global company we have a lot more flexibility, so that with Seattle Genetics we entered into a relationship that features a joint global development of the product and then a commercial agreement where we will commercialize the product outside North America while Seattle Genetics retains the rights to commercialize the product in the United States and Canada.”
Protopapas said the joint development program with Seattle Genetics engages the strengths of the combined Millennium-Takeda internal resources as the drug moves through a pivotal trial space in Phase II under the FDA and scientific advice from the EMEA.
“We are very optimistic and are working closely to register the drug in Europe while Seattle Genetics will register the drug in the USA,” she said.
“We are the only oncology development center for Takeda,” she said, adding that within the first two months of the acquisition Takeda transferred all their oncology products to Millennium to form a newly-integrated pipeline, bringing the number of compounds to 17.
“Takeda has historically been a primary care company,” said Protopapas, “Their portfolio holds some real blockbusters in areas such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but they realized that to fulfill a strategic decision to enter the oncology space and put the company on a path toward leadership in this area they would need to acquire what they called an anchor company.”
The acquisition of Millennium was not just a move to capture the VELCADE revenue nor the product pipeline, she said, “It was very much about acquiring our overall capabilities in oncology; including research, development, commercialization and business development.”
Takeda maintains some discovery projects for oncology, which are conducted under a global oncology strategy that Millennium puts forward for Takeda, she said, “but once a molecule reaches pre-clinical development it is transferred to Millennium. And then the Millennium team is responsible for all of Takeda’s business development activities in oncology.”
“We see partnering as an integral part of building the business for the long term, and you can think of our business development efforts for partnering as building an external R&D engine,” Protopapas said.
“We maintain an internal R&D group that is very strong and focused on innovative areas of biology, and now with Takeda we have more resources to pursue what we are really passionate about,” she said.
“I believe it is incredibly critical to have these passionate internal advocates as part of a successful business development strategy,” she said.
“Irrespective of whether it is an in-license asset or an internally developed product, there are so many twists and turns in bringing a product to market that you need informed and passionate champions internally,” she said.
“It becomes even more important when we bring a partnered asset into the company,” said Protopapas, “to create a home where people will nurture the science and really push it forward.
“There is no point in me pushing an in-licensed opportunity on our R&D or commercial organizations,” she said. “I can present it to them, I can argue the merits of it, but ultimately if they don’t love it and call it their own, we will not be able to capture the full value of that asset.”
“We see ourselves as a partner who offers the benefits of working with a biotech that is nimble, passionately focused in oncology, able to make quick decisions and move things forward,” she said.
“Yet we have this partner in Takeda with a global capability and significant resources, and this combination makes us an excellent company for potential partners, a biotech culture with the strengths of a large pharmaceutical.”
Protopapas said Millennium is sharply focused on novel molecules that are the first- or best-in-class.
“We are seeking products with a potential to make a paradigm change for patients and that are really differentiated by interesting science,” she said.
“This is the cornerstone of our strategy here at Millennium and believe it is how we will build the business,” she said.
“We receive a lot of inquiries and we are quite responsive, yet our first screening for interest in a potential partner is the ability to differentiate the product,” she said.
“We always like to see a product in clinical development but we also look at earlier stage products around novel biology, Protopapas said, adding that “there are a lot of molecules in oncology clinical development today yet once you set the bar where we have, then you arrive at a pretty small subset.”
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