Like many other biopharma companies, Kyowa Kirin is in restructuring mode.
The Japanese pharma is planning “a significant reduction” in its small molecule drug discovery research activities, the company said (PDF) Thursday. The move comes as Kyowa Kirin has decided to focus on antibody technologies and hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy in the fields of bone/minerals, endocrinology, blood disorders and rare diseases.
“This focus, previously announced, means other programs are being scaled back or discontinued outside these areas,” a Kyowa Kirin spokesperson told Fierce Pharma via email.
Manufacturing operations will also undergo some trimming as Kyowa looks to reduce its workforce in chemistry, manufacturing and controls research and in its quality division.
As a result, Kyowa is rolling out a voluntary early retirement program to employees working in those areas who are 30 years old or older and who have been with the firm for at least three years.
Kyowa's spokesperson said the company is not able to specify the exact number of job cuts it’s targeting. The voluntary retirement program will be offered primarily to people in Japan, the spokesperson added. The retirements are planned for the end of this year.
“Today’s announcements are discrete activities, but we will continue to optimize how we work and leverage our talent to deliver the next generation of treatments with life-changing value for patients,” the spokesperson said.
On the commercial front, Kyowa is offloading some operations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region to be “more sustainable and profitable.”
For 750 million Chinese yuan ($104 million), Kyowa Kirin will transfer its entire Chinese mainland operations, including five established brands, to local firm WinHealth Pharma via a special-purpose company. Together, the drugs brought in 589 million yuan ($81 million) in 2023 revenues, compared with 544 million yuan in 2022 and 761 million yuan in 2021.
WinHealth will also obtain commercial rights to Kyowa’s Crysvita and Poteligeo in the country.
In a separate transaction, Kyowa is granting the APAC-focused Swiss holding company DKSH Holding commercial rights to seven established brands in South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Under that deal, DKSH gets rights to Crysvita and Poteligeo in some of those markets.
Kyowa is also keeping those global brands completely in-house in Australia as part of its APAC business.
In explaining the decision in a statement, Abdul Mullick, Ph.D., chief international business officer of Kyowa, pointed to “the increasing challenges in the APAC region.” In a separate release (PDF), the company cited its “consideration of external environmental changes.”
Before the APAC restructuring, Kyowa had made a similar move—albeit in a different area—with Grünenthal. Back in 2022, Kyowa formed a joint venture with the German company to handle 13 established medicines in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. While Grünenthal held a 51% stake in the business at the beginning, Kyowa plans to shed its ownership in early 2026.
Kyowa is pulling back on small molecules and in APAC just as it wades deeper into biologics and gene therapies. The Japanese drugmaker is investing up to $530 million to build a new biologics manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Construction is scheduled to begin this year and last into 2027. The U.S. facility will complement a new biologics plant being built at Kyowa’s Takasaki campus in Japan.
In addition, Kyowa recently bought gene therapy specialist Orchard Therapeutics for $387.4 million. The unit in March won an FDA approval for Lenmeldy, a one-time gene therapy to treat the rare genetic disease metachromatic leukodystrophy.
For the first half of 2024, Kyowa reported revenues of 233 billion Japanese yen ($1.56 billion), up 16.9% over the same period last year. The company attributed the growth mainly to newer drugs in North America and revenue from technology out-licensing.