President & CEO
Masafumi Nogimori

Astellas – A Leading Light for Life
Creating a brighter future –
for patients, for society, for our supporters

Our slogan “Changing tomorrow” reflects Astellas employees' determination to help each and every patient by providing high value-added pharmaceutical products to patients fighting illness. This fiscal year marks the fifth anniversary of Astellas Pharma Inc. On this occasion, we would like to renew our commitment to helping realize a brighter future for all patients fighting illness.

My mission as President

Three years have passed since I assumed the post of president. At that time, our focus was on strengthening R&D and expanding overseas sales, and my foremost mission was to take steps to help us realize those goals. However, I had also been entrusted with another important mission: the assurance of fair and impartial corporate management. In our business philosophy, we make it clear that our raison d’être is to “contribute toward improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products.” We intend to provide high value-added drugs on a worldwide basis in highly specialized therapeutic fields, and thereby establish our presence as a truly global company. This goal will not be easy to achieve. I believe that the key factor will be “people.” I have placed the highest priority on the creation of effective teams of employees. This can be realized only through a shared respect for professionalism and efficient communication. We need to create a work environment and a corporate culture in which individual employees are encouraged to cultivate specialized expertise and take responsibility for decision-making in their respective positions. I believe that the widespread acceptance of such an approach by frontline employees is extremely important for Astellas to achieve growth, and that fair and impartial corporate management is particularly important.

For a brighter future for patients fighting disease

Astellas introduced the concept of CSR-based management at the time of the Company's establishment through a merger. We define CSR-based management as: “Management that works to maintain and improve enterprise value with a holistic approach encompassing economic, social and humanistic qualities.” In the market, economic activities have become speculative, and society and its individual members are being forced to adjust to a rapid deterioration in economic conditions. Corporate scandals are often in the news. The people responsible seem to have forgotten to give due consideration to the social and humanistic implications of their actions. The conventional approach tends to focus on a company’s or an individual’s economic output as the principal indicator in the assessment of performance. Astellas’ approach to CSR-based management encourages us to assess our actions from a social and humanistic perspective. The aspiration to make Astellas a company of great integrity is commonly shared by all our employees. With these shared values, we are working to achieve the sustainable enhancement of our enterprise value. It is our wish to help each and every patient fighting illness. To realize our business philosophy, we must keep repeating the process of trial and error in development, and must accept the numerous ensuing failures. “Changing tomorrow,” and “If you try hard enough, you will succeed.” With these inspirational words, we will make ceaseless efforts so that all patients fighting illness may enjoy a brighter future.

We thank you all for your understanding and continuing support.

October 2009