In May 2008, Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited of Japan with Millennium subsequently rebranded as Takeda Oncology. SBIR involved from very soon after being formed, in its early years the very distinctive (and different) Millennium business strategy focused on building science and business partnering creating more than 20 strategic alliances with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These alliances provided Millennium with <$2 billion of committed funding was used to develop and enhance its pipeline. A merger with Leukosite in 1999 brought the company its first drug close-to-market, Campath (alemtuzumab) Injection, and additional investigational drugs in clinical trials. In 2000, a merger with Cambridge Discovery Chemistry gave Millennium a strong presence in the United Kingdom and added to the organization more than 100 scientists with expertise in chemistry. In a strategic business decision, Campath was later sold to the Millennium partner for the drug, ILEX Oncology, which in turn was acquired by Genzyme. In February 2002, there was a further merger with COR Therapeutics among the largest such mergers in the history of the biotech industry at that time. In addition to creating a strong pipeline of novel therapeutics, the merger added cardiovascular research and drug development to the Company's other key therapeutic areas: oncology and inflammation. The merger also brought Integrilin (eptifibatide) Injection, an intravenous anti-platelet drug for patients with severe cardiovascular diseases, into the Millennium fold. Millennium partnered with Schering-Plough on the development and marketing of Integrilin until 2005 when Millennium licensed the exclusive U.S. commercialization and development rights of Integrilin to Schering-Plough. In May 2003 Velcade was launched for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma a cancer of the blood. At the time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for the treatment of multiple myeloma for patients who had not responded to at least two other therapies for the disease. Velcade the first FDA-approved proteasome inhibitor reached the market in record time and represented the first treatment in more than a decade to be approved for patients with multiple myeloma. In late December 2007, Millennium successfully submitted a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) to the FDA for Velcade for previously untreated multiple myeloma. The sNDA submitted to the FDA for this indication included data from the Phase III VISTA.[2] study, a large, well-controlled international clinical trial, comparing a Velcade based regimen to a traditional standard of care. Priority review was granted by the FDA in January 2008. On June 20, 2008, the FDA approved VELCADE in combination for patients with previously untreated multiple myeloma. This means that Millennium can market Velcade to patients who have not had any prior therapies for multiple myeloma (a first-line therapy). In May 2008, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited purchased Millennium for $8.8 billion. Millennium now operates as an independent subsidiary, serving as the global center of excellence in oncology under its new name: "Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company." This global footprint includes oncology research and marketing strategy and oversight. In addition to Cambridge, MA, oncology resources include facilities in San Diego, San Francisco, Tsukuba and Osaka with Millennium as the global hub for this critical and rapidly expanding therapeutic area.
