Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Italia creates Rare Diseases Business Unit

Takeda Italia establishes a new Business Unit dedicated to rare diseases, 5 thousand-8 thousand diseases that all together affect about 300 million people in the world, 30 million in Europe and 2 million in Italy, children in 50-75% of cases. It will be directed by Alessandro Lattuada, 52, from Turin, with a degree in Pharmacy, with the aim of “aligning in a single team all the resources necessary to transform the treatment of less widespread and still too little known pathologies in the next few years”, whose ” rarity often makes the search for drugs more complex. Of all rare diseases – Takeda remembers – only a little more than 100 have a specific therapy available, or just over 1% “. “The investment – underlines the company in a note – is part of a context that at an institutional level is paying great attention to the issue of rare diseases, as evidenced by the recent approval in the Senate of the Consolidated Law with which important innovations will be introduced by regulatory point of view. An important signal for Italy, which must not lead to underestimate the fact that much still needs to be done for the good of patients. A commitment Takeda has taken on for some time now, and which is renewed with this organizational choice which is added to the strategic imperatives “of all time:” The research and development of highly innovative therapies, early diagnosis and newborn screening, rapid access to valuable care, home care and telemedicine “. Rare Business Unit consolidates the current portfolio consisting of more than 40 products intended for rare but highly disabling diseases, such as haemophilia, hereditary angioedema, from lysosomal accumulation and primary and secondary immunodeficiencies. “But the gaze is already turned to the future”, Takeda assures that in this area it is developing “a solid pipeline of molecules for therapeutic areas in which unmet needs still exist”, unmet medical needs, “such as post-transplant cytomegalovirus infection. , and two rare coagulation diseases, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and von Willebrand’s disease. “Lattuada has a long experience in the pharmaceutical sector and in the field of rare diseases, reports Takeda Italy. He joined the company following the integration with Shire in 2020, as Business Unit Director, successfully managing the launch of an innovative treatment for hereditary angioedema during the Covid-19 emergency and ensuring a fruitful collaboration with main national stakeholders to manage the shortage of plasma derivatives, life-saving therapies for rare diseases. “With a pipeline whose main objective is to respond to the unmet needs that still exist, the Rare Business Unit assumes a double commitment and vocation – declares Lattuada – Even with this organizational choice, Takeda Italia intends to respond adequately and concretely to the needs that they meet patients and their caregivers on a daily basis. The challenge is to define new schemes, where this has not yet been done, to change the therapeutic path and thus improve the quality of life of patients and their families. In fact, we have introduced new figures such as the Patient Journey Manager, to support the patient from the first symptoms to post therapy, starting as always by listening to the real needs, pharmacological and non-pharmacological, of patients and their families “. The birth of the new Business Unit” is only the the latest of Takeda’s initiatives that followed one another in 2021, with the aim of increasing knowledge and awareness of in rare diseases “, the company remarks. “Rare diseases are a priority for Takeda – declares Annarita Egidi, CEO of Takeda Italy – Patients suffering from these diseases, often in pediatric age, are rare if we consider the single disease, but seen together they are millions and we feel the responsibility to support them so that they have the right diagnosis, the best possible treatment and a bright future. With the new Rare Business Unit, the company demonstrates that it wants to try to change the working paradigm, expressing a character and a commitment that go beyond drug therapy and that approach the entire treatment path “.