* Annual recurring profit at eight-year low in 2008/09
* Recurring profit forecast to rise 22 percent in 2009/10
* Shares up 0.8 percent vs 0.1 percent gain in Nikkei (Adds results details, share price)
TOKYO, May 11 (Reuters) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, Japan's biggest drugmaker, said on Monday its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled thanks to contributions from newly-consolidated U.S. firms, but forecast weaker-than-expected growth this year.
For the full year ended in March, Takeda booked its lowest recurring profit in eight years because of hefty one-time costs related to acquisitions in the first quarter.
Joining other drugmakers using acquisitions to stave off earnings declines on patent expirations, Takeda bought U.S. biotech firm Millennium Pharmaceuticals and absorbed its part of former U.S. joint venture TAP Pharmaceuticals.
Takeda is seeking to capitalise on Millennium's cancer drug pipeline and TAP's marketing network to counter U.S. patent expirations on its mainstay drugs, the Prevacid ulcer drug in November and the Actos diabetes drug in 2011.
A major setback in the development of a successor to Actos hit Takeda in March, triggering concerns that it may have to spend more in the coming year to develop the key drug candidate and may not have a timely successor to Actos.
The drugmaker forecast a recurring profit of 400 billion yen in the year to March 2010, short of a consensus forecast of 448.4 billion yen in a poll of 20 analysts by Thomson Reuters.
Profit for the year just ended was 327.2 billion yen, down 39 percent from a year earlier.
January-March recurring profit rose to 72.6 billion yen from 30.2 billion yen a year earlier.
Following the earnings announcement, Takeda shares were changing hands at 3,720 yen, up 0.8 percent from Friday, while the benchmark Nikkei was up 0.1 percent. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)