Takeda opens Ireland’s first stem cell facility

Takeda has opened its $43 million facility in Grange Castle, Ireland, which will help supply cell therapy treatment options to the EU, Canada, and the US.

Takeda Ireland, a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, announced a €36 million ($43 million) investment February 2021 to build Ireland’s first commercial-scale cell therapy production facility.

At the time of the announcement, Takeda declined to disclose what cell therapies it planned to manufacture at the site located 10km west of Dublin. However, the firm did confirm it would supply cell therapy treatment options to the European, Canadian, and US markets.

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The Grange Castle site also makes drug substance and drug products, but this expansion is specifically a cell therapy site. The Irish Times reported that it will be dedicated to producing Alofisel, a gastrointestinal therapy used to treat the side effects of Chron’s disease.

did not confirm this, a spokesperson for the firm told BioProcess Insider it would be manufacturing “a cell therapy product.”

The site will create an additional 100 jobs at the plant and the company highlighted that the site offers numerous advantages, including “a highly skilled workforce, access to a great talent pool and proximity to an international airport.”

Along with Grange Castle, Takeda has a second Irish biomanufacturing plants in Bray, County Wicklow, (a biomanufacturing plant in Dunboyne, added through its $62 billion acquisition of Shire, was divested two years ago.)

This is the latest expansion in the cell therapy space by Takeda. In September 2020, it opened a manufacturing center at its R&D headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts to support its cell therapy ambitions.