Takeda discontinues cell therapy efforts

As part of a strategic portfolio prioritization, Takeda has made the decision to discontinue its cell therapy efforts.

The company, which currently has no active cell therapy clinical trials, will now seek to offload its cell therapy platform technologies and research and clinic-ready programs to an external partner.

According to the Boston Business Journal, this move will involve a workforce reduction of 137 employees from Takeda’s U.S. hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Takeda says it will refocus near-term investments into programs that it believes can deliver therapies at increased speed and scale, focusing on small molecules, biologics and antibody-drug conjugates.

Takeda has made several large investments into cell therapy, including exercising its option to acquire GammaDelta Therapeutics in 2021, picking up GammaDelta’s allogeneic variable delta 1 gamma-delta T cell therapy platforms, which included both blood-derived and tissue-derived platforms, in addition to early-stage cell therapy programs.