Exclusive: Takeda Tsunami hits Japan pharma

It’s difficult to think of a corporate restructuring that evoked more emotions, arguments, and commentary than the changes in Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502), Japan’s largest pharma company, during the past few years.

If you do not pay much attention to the Japan pharma market in general and Takeda specifically, here is a brief overview of a home grown, family managed, more Japanese than any other Japanese company, writes P Reed Maurer, long-time Japanese industry watcher and president of International Alliances Limited in an exclusive article.

The founder Chobei Takeda I started a brokerage business for Chinese and Japanese herbal medicines in Osaka in 1781. For the next 222 years Takeda family members occupied the president’s chair, 10 men in total. The last president from 1993 to 2003 was Kunio Takeda, son of Chobei Takeda VI.