About

Led by Nils Kjaergaard, regional general counsel Europe and Canada, the Takeda legal team is comprised of 14 lawyers and five non-lawyers responsible for supporting the EUCAN region and with global responsibilities in the areas of business development, manufacturing and data privacy. The department is increasingly working towards becoming even more of an integrated part of the global team that supports the pharmaceutical company. In recent years Takeda has adopted a strategy to divest non-core assets while also attempting inorganic growth in key regions; the legal team’s support is essential during the execution of this strategy with both internal advice and management of external counsel. Working in the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry means that the legal team has an active role to play in business development, R&D and manufacturing, with many legal questions around how to position products. The legal team has proven to be a proactive part of the business time and time again, advising on the positioning in the market of new key products in a highly regulated market. Andrea Ferrari, associate general counsel says: ‘As a recent example, the legal team was involved in very creatively designing an in-licensing deal that was “new frontier” for the company regarding a stem cell product. This imposed intellectual property, technical and other challenges that were unprecedented to the company’. The team has worked on the redirection of the company’s strategic focus towards specialist pharmaceutical products, a change that ‘is highly legally intensive and requires an increasing degree of specialisation’. The team nonetheless continues to add value to the business with a sturdy track record in budget reductions through reduced sourcing of external legal advice.