Astellas Hunts for Prospects with $3.6B Cash to Spend

Dec. 1, 2016

With patent expirations coming in 2019, Astellas CEO Yoshihiko Hatanaka is looking for his next blockbuster. Armed with up to $3.6 billion in cash, the Tokyo-based drugmaker is considering different investment options, according to a Bloomberg article. More acquisitions are possible, and the company is also looking at new diseases to expand into, Hatanaka said in an interview.

Astellas won joint rights to the prostate cancer drug Xtandi with U.S.-based Medivation Inc. in 2009. As the drug has taken off, the Japanese company’s sales jumped and its share price more than doubled over the past five years, the story said.

As Hatanaka searches for his next blockbuster, Astellas has begun investing in experimental therapies for the muscular disorder ALS and in an emerging category of cancer drugs.

Read the Bloomberg story