Another acquisition for Takeda, Envoy Therapeutics for up to $140 million

Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502), Japan’s largest drugmaker, has clearly not quenched its thirst for acquisitions, as it announced yesterday an agreement to buy privately-held US firm Envoy Therapeutics, via its USA-based subsidiary Takeda America Holdings.

Under the terms of the deal, Takeda will acquire 100% of the equity in Envoy for total consideration of up to $140 million, which includes an up-front payment and progress-dependent, preclinical milestone payments, and says the transaction will be finalized in the next few days.

This is the fourth acquisition this year for Takeda, which last year bought the Swiss Nycomed group for around $13 billion. 2012 to date, Takeda has announced the $800 million acquisition of US firm URL Pharma and is paying $60 million for LigoCyte, also of the USA, as well as a $249 million bid for Brazil’s Multilab.