December 20, 2004

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Takeda Announces to Place its Anti-Diabetic Agent
TAK-559 on Clinical Hold

OSAKA, JAPAN --- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited ("Takeda") announced today that its investigational compound TAK-559, an anti-diabetic agent by improving insulin resistance, is placed on clinical hold because of findings of abnormalities in liver enzyme tests in a small number of patients during the course of the phase III studies. As a result, Takeda judged it necessary to reevaluate the product's safety profile.

TAK-559 is under development as an insulin resistance improving agent, and is in the phase I clinical stage and phase III in Japan and the US/Europe respectively. The phase III clinical studies have been conducted since 2003 with more than 1,000 patients mainly in the US.

We will conduct thorough analysis of the data obtained during the course of phase III studies to date in order to decide the future development plan of this product.

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