Big pharmaceutical companies tend to chase the next blockbuster drugs, treatments that could be sold to millions of people and generate billions of dollars in revenue.
Takeda Pharmaceutical, a Japanese company with 50,000 employees worldwide and 500 in Thousand Oaks, is different. One of the company’s main focuses is rare diseases.
On Oct. 1, it formally opened an expansion of its Thousand Oaks facility that is devoted to developing and manufacturing treatments for Hunter Syndrome, a debilitating genetic disorder with about 2,000 cases worldwide.
“We know our patients by name,” Thomas Wozniewski, Takeda’s global manufacturing and supply officer, told a group of company executives and community leaders during the event. “Every vial has a name.”
One of the names on Takeda’s vials is Charlie McKay. He is 6 years old and was diagnosed with Hunter Syndrome before birth. Charlie uses a wheelchair, and his disease can cause vision and hearing loss, developmental impairments, breathing problems, heart disease, seizures and other problems.
Though there are treatments, including those produced by Takeda, there is no cure for Hunter Syndrome. Children who have it often don’t live past their 20s.
Charlie’s mother, Kristin McKay, also spoke at the Oct. 1 ribbon cutting for Takeda’s expanded and renovated Thousand Oaks facility. She is the president and executive director of Project Alive, a group that advocates for families affected by Hunter Syndrome and raises money for research into treatments and potential cures.
When McKay was a child, her baby brother, Zachary, was diagnosed with Hunter Syndrome. The disease almost always affects boys.
“I grew up my entire life knowing that I would lose my baby brother,” McKay said. “Every year, my wish on my birthday when I blew out my candles was that I could save my brother.”
McKay’s brother died at 19. A few years later, she gave birth to Charlie. She knew from prenatal screening that he had Hunter Syndrome.
When her brother was young, there were virtually no treatments for Hunter Syndrome, McKay said. Today, kids like Charlie can take an enzyme replacement therapy developed by Takeda, and their quality of life is much better.
“There’s been a lot of hope,” she said. “The life that kids get to live today with the treatments we have, it’s shocking.”
Takeda works on other treatments at its Thousand Oaks facility, but Hunter Syndrome is the focus for the 15,000-square-foot expansion. The company spent $170 million on the work, which began in 2021.
In addition to the new research and production space, it included a renovation of the existing facility and a solar array that provides about one-third of the property’s power needs.
True pillar of ‘science and innovation’
Takeda has been in Thousand Oaks since 2019, and its facility on Rancho Conejo Boulevard has been a big part of the Conejo Valley’s biotechnology industry for decades longer. It was built in the 1990s by Baxter International, once one of the area’s biggest employers, and then transfered to a Baxter spinoff called Baxalta, which was acquired by Takeda in 2019.
Today, Takeda is the second-biggest company in Thousand Oaks’ biotechnology sector, after Amgen, which has around 5,500 local employees.
State Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, a Democrat from Thousand Oaks, called the Takeda facility “one of the true pillars of science and innovation” in her district.
“While a lot of companies have decided to move manufacturing out of California or outside of the United States, you have committed to not only staying, but investing in a state-of-the-art facility here in Thousand Oaks,” Irwin said. “That speaks volumes to your confidence in our workforce and our economy.”
Amgen is one of the companies that has moved its manufacturing out of California. But last month, the company announced its own big investment in Thousand Oaks: a $600 million research and development center it plans to build on its main campus, about a mile from Takeda’s newly renovated and expanded facility.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Takeda Pharmaceutical unveils $170M expansion in Thousand Oaks
Reporting by Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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