Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. is developing an experimental therapy for the novel coronavirus with the goal of making it available in 9 to 18 months, the nation's largest drugmaker said.
"We will do all that we can to address the novel coronavirus threat," Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda's vaccine business unit and head of the response team, said in a statement Wednesday. The initiative to develop a plasma-derived therapy takes advantage of a business Takeda gained in its $62 billion acquisition of Shire Plc in 2018.
Drugmakers such as GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Moderna Inc. are working to develop treatments for the coronavirus that emerged in China late last year. While pharmaceutical companies respond with swift solutions against the COVID-19 outbreak, the potential payoffs are murky at best. Development typically takes years. By the time they're ready, the crisis has often abated, leaving little incentive to carry on with the work.
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