Takeda Receives Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced they have entered into a partnership to support polio eradication in developing countries, Takeda said in a May 9, 2016 press announcement. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided Takeda with a $38 million grant to develop, license, and supply at least 50 million doses per year of Sabin-strain inactivated poliovirus vaccine (sIPV) to more than 70 developing countries. The vaccine will be manufactured at Takeda’s facility in Hikari, Japan.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Gates Foundation will provide the grant to Takeda to make doses of a Sabin-strain inactivated polio vaccine to developing countries receiving Gavi support. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, brings together public and private sectors with the goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries, Takeda said in a press announcement. Takeda’s sIPV was originally licensed from the Japan Polio Research Institute, which is now a part of BIKEN.

Source: Takeda