Takeda Pharmaceutical, Japan announced that it is acquiring the remaining 25 percent equity of Tianjin Takeda Pharmaceuticals, held by its joint venture Tianjin Lisheng Pharmaceutical. As a result, it is definitive that Tianjin Takeda will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda. Tianjin Takeda, which employs 369 people, had a sales of $23.4 million in FY2009, and has a capital stock of $19.2 million. The company's main products include Actos, Blopress, Enantone, Basen and Takepron. The company is located at Tianjin, China. Since its establishment in 1994, Tianjin Takeda has been a joint venture between Takeda (75 percent) and Tianjin Lisheng (25 percent). In August, the Board of Directors of Tianjin Lisheng resolved to sell out their stake in Tianjin Takeda, and that equity was put on public bidding because Tianjin Lisheng is the state-owned company and the equity is also state-owned property. The public bidding started on September 9, 2010 and ended on October 13, 2010, during which Takeda turned out to be the sole bidder for the buy-out of the 25 percent equity in Tianjin Takeda. “It is an important milestone event for Takeda to obtain the full ownership of Tianjin Takeda as we are aiming to rapidly expand our business in China that is already fifth largest pharmaceutical market in the world with one of the fastest growing trend,” said Mr Haruhiko Hirate, corporate officer, senior vice president, International Operations (Asia) of Takeda. “We will establish and implement further proactive and flexible sales and marketing strategies for existing products, while proceeding to earliest possible registration and launch of new products such as alogliptin for treatment of diabetes, TAK-491/536 for treatment of hypertension, dexlansoprazole for treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and mifamurtide for treatment of osteosarcoma so that we can enhance Takeda’s presence in China as early as possible.”