In March 2007, two acquisitions were made by Japanese Pharma outside Asia. In a first deal, Takeda Pharmaceuticals acquired Paradigm Therapeutics and in the second, Eisai acquired Morphotek. These acquisitions are unusual as traditionally acquisitions outside Japan have been limited. These deals follow the current trend in industry of acquiring companies to gain access to novel products to build up a pipeline. The article states that deals with non-Japanese firms will build an important platform for future growth and would increase Japanese pharma’s portfolio by further acquisitions and more in-house R&D.