Four months after acquiring Intellikine Inc. for $320 million, and less than a year after its major purchase of Nycomed GmbH for $13.7 billion, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said it will add another new asset to its portfolio.

The Osaka, Japan-based pharmaceutical company will acquire URL Pharma Inc., of Philadelphia, for $800 million up front, plus future performance-based contingent earn-out payments.

URL's leading product is Colcrys (colchicine) for gout flares. The drug had net sales of $430 million in 2011.

Takeda said the acquisition of URL would contribute immediately to revenues and non-GAAP operating income, with estimated net sales of more than $550 million in 2012, and projected growth of Colcrys sales in the future.

The addition of Colcrys complements Takeda's existing gout program, which includes Uloric (febuxostat) for management of hyperuricemia in patients with gout.

Colchicine is believed to bind to tubulin, inhibiting microtubule polymerization, and is designed to inhibit neutrophil activity. Its general effect is anti-inflammatory, and it has been found effective in treating gout.

The drug is derived from a natural product and has been used medicinally for centuries.

In 2009, the FDA approved colchicine for acute gout flares, prevention of gout flares and familial Mediterranean fever, giving URL Pharma three years of marketing exclusivity. Unapproved forms of colchicine subsequently have been removed from the market.

URL also markets Fibricor (fenofibrate), a cholesterol-lowering medication, and Qualaquin (quinine sulfate) for malaria.

Takeda has been very active in partnering and acquisition, not only adding profitable, mature assets like URL's Colcrys, but pipeline assets, as well.

In December 2011, Takeda nabbed the "last real asset" in the phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K1) space in its buyout of La Jolla, Calif.-based Intellikine. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 22, 2011.)

In that deal, Takeda paid $190 million up front, with $120 million in potential clinical milestones.

Intellikine's pipeline included small-molecule inhibitors of PI3K1 and of mammalian targets of rapamycin (mTOR2) pathways, with ongoing Phase I trials in solid tumors and hematological malignancies.

Takeda's acquisition of European pharmaceutical company Nycomed GmbH in May 2011 enhanced its product offerings with Daxas (roflumilast), a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease therapy approved in Europe in 2010, projected to reach €500 million (US$655.5 million) in sales by 2015, and Revestive/Gattex (teduglutide), a GLP-2 drug for short bowel syndrome that Nycomed licensed ex-North American rights to from NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. NPS filed a new drug application for that drug in December 2011.

The ambitious merger activity follows a 2010 announcement by Takeda that it had set up a new global business development organization at its subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Inc., based in Illinois, to oversee all business development activities including mergers and acquisitions, with Anna Protopapas appointed as head.

Protopapas was previously in charge of business development of Millennium, a subsidiary of Takeda.

That reorganization, Takeda said, was intended to prioritize "global opportunities" for the benefit of the organization as a whole.

That new business development regime has not only arranged for several mergers since it was established, it has also put together a number of major deals and investments including a $750 million collaboration with Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc. for central nervous system disorders including schizophrenia, another schizophrenia deal with Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. for $106.3 million and an equity investment by Takeda Ventures in stem cell company Fate Therapeutics Inc. (See BioWorld Today, March 4, 2011, April 13, 2011, May 11, 2011.)

At the same time that Takeda is expanding its global presence and pipeline through acquisition and partnering, it is also consolidating its operations.

In January, it announced that it would merge or liquidate subsidiaries in Europe and cut its work force in the U.S., reducing its global work force by about 2,800 positions.

The restructuring was intended in part to integrate operations of previously acquired Nycomed.