Takeda’s manufacturing site in Belgium gets a €300M boost for plasma therapy production

While pharma giant Takeda has been expanding its presence in R&D and manufacturing throughout the US and Asia over the past year, its latest move will see the company making a nine-figure investment in Europe.

Takeda will pump €300 million ($299 million) into expanding its manufacturing site in Lessines, Belgium, a city around 30 miles southwest of Brussels. The expansion will aim to increase the manufacturing of plasma-derived therapies. Takeda also said that this is the largest investment the company had made in Belgium.

While the company did not confirm the size of the expanded site, how many jobs will be added, or when the project will be completed and running, the expansion will consist of a new production facility and warehouse.

Endpoints News reached out to Takeda to get further details and will update the story accordingly.

The site itself has been in operation for 50 years and has produced plasma therapies, along with filling and packing the treatments. The site mainly produces plasma therapies for immunodeficiency diseases as well as treatments for rare diseases such as bleeding disorders and hereditary angioedema.

This is also not the first investment Takeda has made in the site. According to the government website for the Belgian region of Wallonia, Takeda invested €118 million ($117 million) last year in a new production line for producing therapies to treat Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) as well as adding 100 jobs at the site.

Thomas Wozniewski

“Our Lessines site is an important part of our global manufacturing network. The significant investment in Lessines announced today will strengthen the digitalization of our manufacturing sites where innovation plays a key role in creating a sustainable production environment,” Thomas Wozniewski, Takeda’s global manufacturing and supply officer, said in a statement.

Takeda also emphasized the environmental efforts for the expansion as the company is planning to reduce its water usage, be self-sustaining when it comes to electricity and aims to produce net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The investment in Belgium is not the only move that Takeda has made in its plasma therapy unit. In February, Bob Nelsen-backed Resilience established a partnership with Takeda’s plasma-derived therapies business unit to develop and manufacture several products in its portfolio out of its site in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Takeda has also been expanding its footprint in the US. Last year, the company broke ground on a 15,000-square-foot, $126 million manufacturing facility in Thousand Oaks, CA. In June, Takeda also inked a 15-year lease to establish a 600,000-square-foot R&D and office HQ in Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA.

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