Amgen to form Japanese venture with Astellas Pharma

Amgen Inc, the world's largest biotechnology firm, today said that it has entered into a long-term collaboration and will form a joint venture with Japan's second -largest pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Inc.

Under the long-term collaboration agreement, the two companies will focus on the co-development and co-commercialisation in Japan of five Amgen pipeline medicines, which include four biologics and one small molecule that are focused on the treatment of cardiovascular, bone diseases and cancer.

The pipeline medicines range from early to late stages of development in Japan, with the first potential commercial launch expected as early as 2016.

Both companies will also set up a Tokyo-based joint venture company called Amgen Astellas BioPharma KK.

Amgen will initially own 51 per cent of the JV and will become a wholly-owned Amgen affiliate as soon as 2020.

''The alliance leverages the complementary capabilities of both companies through an innovative business model that combines Amgen's pipeline candidates with Astellas' deep knowledge of Japanese patient and physician needs, long-term commercial and regulatory experience, and strong presence as a leading company in Japan, both companies said in a release.

''With Astellas' strong capabilities and excellent reputation, this alliance will help accelerate development and commercialisation of Amgen medicines for patients in Japan. This alliance reflects our long-term commitment to the Japan market and is an important step in our global expansion efforts," said Robert Bradway, chairman and CEO of Amgen.

"We look forward to entering this alliance with Amgen and believe it will strengthen our pipeline to address unmet medical needs, as well as enable us to obtain growth drivers," said Yoshihiko Hatanaka, president and CEO of Astellas.

With market cap of $79.7 billion and annual revenues of $16.6 billion, California-based Amgen discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers innovative human therapeutics.

A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, the Nasdaq-listed company makes drugs for cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, bone disease and other serious illnesses.

Tokyo-based Astellas, Japan's second-largest pharmaceutical company after Takeda Pharmaceutical, develops drugs for urology, immunology, infectious diseases, oncology, neuroscience and DM complications and kidney diseases.

Astellas has around 17,000 employees worldwide and generates annual revenues of $9.9 billion.