Takeda will abandon all of its cell therapy work, retreating from research into a field it had made once made a strategic priority.
The Japanese pharmaceutical giant said on Wednesday that, as part of a “strategic portfolio prioritization process,” it will stop its cell therapy research. Takeda plans to seek an “external partner” to advance that work, which includes platform technologies and certain “clinic-ready programs.” It doesn’t currently have any clinical trials underway.
Takeda will redirect near-term investments into programs that can “deliver transformative therapies to patients at increased speed and scale,” the company said. Preclinical work on biologics, small molecules and antibody drug conjugates is producing “novel and highly innovative” candidates, Takeda added.
The move marks the end of a yearslong foray by Takeda into cell…