Takeda Pharmaceutical has entered into an agreement for absorption-type company split with its wholly-owned subsidiary which was established in March 2017 (NewCo) and intends to enter into another agreement for joint venture with Pharm Research Associates (PRA(UK)), a subsidiary of PRA Health Sciences, aiming for transferring a part of Takeda Development Center Japan (TDC Japan) businesses to PRA. Takeda and PRA announced the expansion of their partnership to Japan on February 15, 2017.

Since the company split is an absorption-type split carried out between Takeda and its wholly-owned subsidiary, certain details are omitted from disclosure, in line with Tokyo Stock Exchange disclosure guidelines.

Takeda is in the process of implementing the steps to accelerate R&D transformation by refocusing on three key therapeutic areas—Oncology, Gastroenterology and Central Nervous System, plus Vaccines and concentrating R&D activities in Japan and the U.S. This transformation is critical to provide the company with the necessary organizational and financial flexibility to drive innovation, enhance partnerships, and improve R&D productivity for long-term, sustainable growth.

As a part of this initiative, the company entered into a global partnership agreement with PRA in August 2016, followed by an agreement to expand their global partnership in February 2017 to include Japan. A joint venture between Takeda and PRA(UK) will provide clinical development operations and pharmacovigilance and other operational services for both development and marketed product portfolios of Takeda in close alignment with Takeda's TDC Japan. This partnership is expected to provide access to a more flexible operational capability to support development, as well as further globalizing Takeda's development business in Japan building on Takeda’s capability in Japan and PRA’s capability in Asia Pacific.

Subsequent to the company split, a half of the issued shares in NewCo will be transferred to PRA(UK). Through this transaction, NewCo will become a joint venture between Takeda and PRA(UK), and then its name will become “Takeda-PRA Development Center KK”, which is scheduled to be effective as of June 1, 2017.