Takeda to Move US Headquarters to Boston Following Shire Acquisition

Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals has announced it will be relocating its US headquarters from Chicago to Boston, with the decision affecting about 1,000 employees. The move was largely motivated by Shire’s established presence in the Boston area.

Takeda and Shire announced the details of their buyout agreement earlier this year, with the deal valued around $62 billion. And while it took months of negotiations and the submission of five offers for Takeda and Shire to reach an acquisition agreement, the deal has yet to be officially closed.

On Friday, Takeda received the go-ahead from the State Administration for Market Regulation in China to buy Shire, which gets them one step closer to completing the acquisition.

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According to Julia Ellwanger, a spokesperson for Takeda, the move from Chicago to Boston will be conditional on the successful closing of the deal with Shire, along with additional regulatory and shareholder approvals. The transition from Takeda’s Deerfield site to its new Boston headquarters will also be completed over time, largely due to the fact that up to 1,000 employees will need to be relocated or replaced.

However, not all Deerfield employees will receive relocation offers. Regardless of whether the staff will be staying or going, each employee will be handed their fate about half a year after the Shire deal closes, which pushes us into early 2019.

“This move, while difficult, will allow closer collaboration across Takeda to best position our future pipeline for success,” said Ellwanger. “It will also simplify our existing Takeda US operations.”

Takeda has reportedly been downsizing its operations in Deerfield since July, with hundreds of high-level employees already being relocated to the Boston area. The drugmaker also reduced its sales staff across the US in March, with nearly 500 employees being laid off.

Currently, Shire maintains a facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts which is about 25 minutes away from Boston. About 3,000 employees in Massachusetts work for Shire.