Takeda to Acquire Syrrx

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 07 Feb 2005 - 12:00 PDT


Tokyo, Japan, Feb 7, 2005 - (JCN Newswire) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502; OTC: TKPHF) announced today that Takeda and Syrrx Inc. (US) agreed on February 5, 2005 (PST) to merge Syrrx, Inc. into the Takeda Group. The merger is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and is subject to the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Upon successful completion of the transaction, which is anticipated to occur in the first quarter of 2005, Syrrx will become a subsidiary of Takeda America Holdings, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda.

Founded in February 1999, San Diego based Syrrx achieves a competitive advantage in drug discovery by leveraging its leading high-throughput X-ray crystallography capabilities to determine the three dimensional structures of drug targets. Syrrx uses these structures to efficiently design best-in-class drug candidates. Syrrx directs its efforts toward therapeutics to treat metabolic diseases, cancer, and inflammation, and has multiple R&D pipeline products including several compounds directed to type 2 diabetes already in clinical development.

This merger will integrate Syrrx's technologies and R&D pipeline into Takeda and establish a discovery research presence for Takeda in the US. This relationship is expected to help Takeda further enhance its R&D pipeline and to create more innovative drugs as early as possible through efficient discovery processes including identification of target molecules, search for hit compounds and medicinal chemistry research. Syrrx will become part of Takeda's global discovery research network together with Takeda's existing discovery centers in Osaka and Tsukuba, Japan.

"We are pleased to become part of the Takeda group, which has high standards for both R&D and marketing as proven by the creation and successful market penetration of its four international strategic products," said Samuel D. Colella, chairman of the board of Syrrx and managing director of Versant Ventures. "We believe that compounds created by Syrrx will be successfully developed by Takeda under its global development organization, while our state-of-the-art technologies will contribute to enhancement of Takeda's R&D pipeline," said Stephen W. Kaldor, who will continue as president and chief scientific officer of Syrrx.

"We are confident that the merger with Syrrx will bring benefits to both organizations, and will enhance our ability to create novel drugs," said Mr. Yasuchika Hasegawa, president and chief operating officer of Takeda. "As a company aiming to become an R&D oriented, world-class pharmaceutical company, it is critical to expand our global research network for the continued creation of new products as a source of growth. We are pleased with this merger agreement as an important step toward the realization of our management mission of 'striving toward better health for individuals and progress in medicine by developing superior pharmaceutical products'."

About Syrrx

Headquartered in San Diego, California, privately held Syrrx Inc focuses on drug targets that have been validated in human clinical trials and directs its efforts toward therapeutics to treat metabolic diseases, cancer, and inflammation. Syrrx exploits its competitive advantage in high-throughput structural biology to be the first organization to determine the three dimensional structure of known drug targets. Syrrx then uses these structures to drive iterative, structure-based drug design programs to efficiently generate potential drug candidates. Syrrx has an ongoing partnership development and commercialization of Syrrx-designed human dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP IV) inhibitors as drug products for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and other major human diseases. Syrrx also has a strategic alliance for the discovery and early development of inhibitors targeting human HDACs and HSD1. For more information, please visit www.syrrx.com.

About Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd.

Takeda (TSE: 4502; OTC: TKPHF) is a research-based global company with its main focus on pharmaceuticals. As the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and one of the industry's leaders worldwide, Takeda's management mission is "to strive toward better health for individuals and progress in medicine by developing superior pharmaceutical products." Takeda is engaged in activities spanning research and development, manufacturing, and sales and marketing on a world-wide level. Under the current management vision to become an R&D oriented world-class pharmaceutical company, Takeda is taking all possible measures to enhance its R&D pipeline through promotion of its own R&D, in-licensing/alliances and life-cycle management of existing products. In addition, Takeda aims to be "a company that grows together with its stakeholders." Takeda is actively engaged in social contribution activities aiming to become a good corporate citizen in the world.

Contact:

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Corporate Communications Department
Tel: Osaka +81-6-6204-2038, Tokyo +81-3-3278-2039

Syrrx, Inc.
Media Department
Keith P. Wilson, Ph.D.
Tel: USA +858 731 3684
Analysts/Investors:
Jean J. Lockhart
Tel: USA +858 731 3512

View Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd. company profile here Source: http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=9338

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