Takeda to co-promote Velcade in Japan; Eisai sets up subsidiary in Canada

Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical and its wholly-owned US subsidiary Millennium have entered into a co-promotion agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutical KK (a Japanese subsidiary of US health care major Johnson & Johnson) for Velcade (bortezomib) for Injection, a treatment for patients with multiple myeloma.

J&J and its subsidiary Ortho Biotech agreed a $535 million licensing deal for the drug with Millennium in 2003 (before the latter was acquired by Takeda). Janssen Pharma launched Velcade in Japan in 2006, where it is approved for relapsed multiple myeloma. The drug is currently approved in more than 90 countries and has treated more than 160,000 patients worldwide. In 2009, global sales were in excess of $1 billion.

The co-promotion is anticipated to begin in the second quarter of fiscal year 2010. Takeda will receive a percentage of sales (based on certain conditions specified in the contract) as a co-promotion fee. Other financial conditions of the agreement are not disclosed. Takeda's market-leading oncology sales force will join with Janssen's sales team to promote the drug, and the joint effort is expected to 'significantly expand the share-of-voice of Velcade among practitioners who prescribe Velcade in Japan, the second largest global pharmaceutical market,' noted a Takeda press statement.