About Takeda
Founded in Osaka in 1781, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company is one of the oldest and largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and the biggest in Asia by revenue. Headquartered in Tokyo and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4502) with American Depositary Receipts traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Takeda operates across more than 80 countries and employs approximately 50,000 people globally.
Core Therapy Areas
Takeda concentrates its research and commercial efforts on a defined set of therapeutic domains: oncology, rare diseases, neuroscience, gastroenterology, and plasma-derived therapies. The gastroenterology franchise has historically been a pillar of the business, built in part through the long-standing proton pump inhibitor category. The oncology pipeline has grown substantially, particularly in haematology, following the 2019 acquisition of Shire, which also brought a major rare disease and immunology portfolio into the company.
The Shire Acquisition and Global Scale
The circa $62 billion acquisition of Shire, completed in January 2019, was one of the largest pharmaceutical transactions in history and transformed Takeda into a genuinely global top-ten biopharma. It added significant scale in rare haematology, hereditary angioedema, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, alongside a substantial plasma-derived immunology business operating under the Takeda Plasma-Derived Therapies division. The combined entity accelerated Takeda's shift from a Japan-centric business to a fully internationalised operation with major research and manufacturing presence in the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Takeda's research and development investment consistently ranks among the highest in the sector, with a stated commitment to bringing transformative therapies to patients in areas of high unmet medical need. The company maintains a broad pipeline spanning small molecules and large biologics, with particular depth in haematology and immunology.
Further information is available at takeda.com.
