TAK - Is This 250-Year-Old Japanese Big Pharma Giant Selling For Half Price Right Now? | Benzinga
When it comes to Big Pharma, Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (NYSE: TAK) is a conservative play that could prove to be a big winner given its cheap valuation and suite of new drugs that portend to dominate in treating niche illnesses.
Takeda Pharma is Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company with some innovative products in the pipeline across the cancer, gastro, neuro, rare diseases and plasma therapeutics sectors. These potentially lucrative specializations put it at the forefront of global pharma innovation in what is increasingly looking like a sluggish sector, some say.
On September 13, Takeda said that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had accepted for review its second ENTYVIO drug application to treat Chron’s Disease following an April acceptance for its first submission. ENTVIO represents a much more user-friendly improvement over the present treatments on the market which are administered intravenously.
Two days earlier, Takeda said that it was entering its TAK-249 oral drug for active psoriatic arthritis into Phase 3 trials after it showed a clear 20% percent improvement over the placebo in the Phase 2b trial. That followed news in March that Takeda’s ulcerative colitis treatment resulted in an 18% improvement over the placebo in a Stage 4 trial.
The announcements follow further positive news over its cancer and psoriasis treatments and its dengue vaccine prospects in Europe. Is a big growth spurt about to come for Takeda then?
Bumpy Growth
The case for Takeda isn’t as clear cut as for other value stocks. Since listing on NYSE over a decade ago, the company hasn’t shown much in the way of stock performance, declining by over 50% in value since 2011. During ...