Takeda has opened the first stem cell manufacturing facility at Grange Castle Business Park

Patients across Europe, the United States, and Canada will receive Crohn’s treatment at the Grange Castle location.

Takeda, a Japanese pharmaceutical company has opened its €36.4 million investment over the weekend. This is the first stem cell therapy manufacturing facility in Ireland.

Takeda has been operating in Ireland for over 25 years and employs roughly 900 people. There are 100 employees in the new stem cell manufacturing facility. Takeda expects to quadruple the number of people working in the new unit over the next three years, as the company awaits US approval for the medication it is developing there. It has already received therapy approval in Europe and Japan.

The stem cells come from healthy donors’ fatty tissue. They will be purified, designed, and grown on site before being utilized to treat patients with complicated perianal fistulas, a side effect of Crohn’s disease.

These are wounds, or tunnels, that grow between organ walls and the skin around the anal area, and can be extremely painful and difficult to heal.

The new factory will run entirely on renewable energy and recycle all of its waste. Takeda is aiming to be fully carbon neutral by 2040.