Long-term pharmaceutical industry alliance formed in Japan
Pharmaceutical partnership to develop and commercialize five drugs.
Amgen and Astellas have forged a long-term alliance to develop and commercialize five Amgen drugs in Japan. The partnership will operate under the name ‘Amgen Astellas BioPharma KK’, and hope to launch the first of the Amgen drugs under development there in 2016. It is anticipated that with this joint venture, Amgen will build new facilities in Japan – another step towards bringing to an end the absence of Amgen across Asia.
The announcement comes soon after the confirmation of a new joint venture between Amgen and a Chinese firm, Zhejiang Beta Pharma CO, to sell Vectibix™, a colon cancer drug.
The alliance plan to start operations October 1st 2013, with a view to launching its first medicine, romosozumab (which is currently in Phase III testing), by 2016. Other pipeline medicines the partnership will focus on include those to treat gastric cancer, two types of blood cancer, osteoporosis and hyperlipidemia.
“Through this alliance, Amgen will work closely with Astellas to leverage its extensive knowledge of the local market,” said Robert Bradway, chairman and chief executive at Amgen.
Yoshihiko Hatanaka, President and chief executive of Astellas, said: “We look forward to entering this alliance with Amgen and believe it will strengthen our pipeline to address unmet medical needs, as well as enable us to obtain growth drivers. We will work closely with Amgen to build the joint venture, which will provide innovative medicines to patients in Japan.”
It is anticipated that the collaboration will be wholly owned by Amgen by 2020, yet the partnership between the two companies will continue after this and will enable Astellas to develop more oncology drugs.
