Once a gem, now just a rock, Take­da punts PhI­II IBD drug as ri­vals mus­cle ahead

Back in 2016, when then-Shire CEO Flem­ming Ørn­skov picked up a promis­ing clin­i­cal-stage IBD drug from Pfiz­er, the Boston-based biotech dubbed it SHP647 and moved it in­to the gem sec­tion of the pipeline, with rosy ex­pec­ta­tions of reg­is­tra­tion-wor­thy Phase III da­ta ahead.

This was a drug that the EC want­ed Take­da to com­mit to sell­ing off be­fore it gave their bless­ing to its ac­qui­si­tion of Shire, to set­tle some deep-seat­ed con­cerns re­volv­ing around the po­ten­tial mar­ket over­lap with their block­buster ri­val En­tyvio. And Take­da, which took on a heavy debt load to buy Shire, clear­ly want­ed the cash to pay down debt.

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