Astellas’ Corporate Strategic Plan 2021 (CSP2021) maps the next five years of our journey to realize our VISION of standing “on the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into VALUE for patients.” As we head toward FY2025, we will work toward achieving steady growth by accomplishing three goals.
A closer look at CSP2021 goals
*Strategic products: fezolinetant, PADCEV®, XOSPATA®, zolbetuximab, EVRENZO®, AT132
Alongside the Strategic Goals that lay out our path and priorities for the next five years to realize our VISION, we have established Organizational Health Goals (OHG). OHG helps foster an internal environment that will enable the company to reach its full potential and generate exceptional execution and innovation as “One Astellas”. By driving forward with our Strategic Goals and OHG, we believe we can achieve our Performance Goals, which in turn will support our aim to become a company with a market capitalization valued at more than 7 trillion yen in FY2025.
Medium- to long-term sales revenue forecast and growth of Focus Area projects
Consolidated revenue forecast (Risk adjusted)
*Strategic products: fezolinetant, PADCEV®, XOSPATA®, zolbetuximab, EVRENZO®, AT132
We plan to submit applications to expand the indications for XTANDI®, PADCEV®, and XOSPATA®, as well as for the launch of fezolinetant** and zolbetuximab. We expect strong growth from XTANDI® and our Strategic products and aim to achieve more than 1.2 trillion yen in sales by FY2025.
We are concentrating our R&D investments on our five Primary Focus targets, Genetic Regulation, Immuno-Oncology, Blindness & Regeneration, and Mitochondria, Targeted Protein Degradation. R&D is underway to build a new Post-PoC portfolio from these areas by the end of FY2025. We expect that sales of Strategic products such as PADCEV® and fezolinetant will offset the decline of XTANDI® sales, for which the patent will expire after 2027, and that the projects arising from the Focus Area approach will be further growth drivers. We expect that Focus Area projects will contribute to more than 0.5 trillion yen in FY2030.
** fezolinetant was already submitted for approval in the U.S. in June 2022 and in Europe in September 2022.
A message from the Representative Director, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer (CStO)
I put a secondary title to CSP2021 as the “five years for us to prove that Astellas will continue to grow even after the XTANDI® patent expires.” I believe other Strategic products such as fezolinetant can fill the gap of the expiration of the XTANDI® patent. However, further growth will depend on the success of the pipeline from Primary Focuses and the Rx+ business. The key to success is achieving the Organizational Health Goals. Under the banner of “One Astellas,” all employees have the courage to take risks appropriately, demonstrate leadership, and aim to reach further heights. I ask our investors, customers, and business partners to look forward to VALUE that Astellas is going to create.
Naoki Okamura
Naoki Okamura
Achieving a core operating margin of over 30% in FY2025
While we will continue to invest significantly in preparation for new product launches, sales promotion activities, and digital transformation, our SG&A expenses will remain at FY2020 levels. We aim to achieve this by optimizing our product portfolio, globalizing our organization, and taking other steps to pursue efficiency across the company.
R&D expenses will be kept at 19% as a percentage of our revenue, and we will continue to invest in future growth. Based on our projected sales growth, we believe a core operating margin of over 30% is achievable.
A message from the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
To Achieve the core operating margin of over 30%, cost reduction wouldn’t always come first. It’s important to figure out investments which are crucial for Astellas to grow. As CFO, it is my responsibility to find the most efficient balance for Astellas' sustainable growth and maximization of corporate value. I am convinced that the concept of “Dansharism”, which promotes to eliminate work with low priorities and leads to make necessary investments, will be the foundation for Astellas’ global innovation and will lead to a significant improvement on the SG&A ratio described in CSP2021.
Minoru Kikuoka
Minoru Kikuoka
*Dansharism (literal translation “Declutter-ism”): The act of fostering financial discipline and cost ownership in each employee and reviewing accepted practices continuing on from the past, old work processes. By following a policy of dansharism, we aim to dramatically improve labor productivity and transform the organization into one more prone to innovation. This is a necessary mindset to enable us to invest resources into new initiatives while maintaining the absolute amount of SG&A expenses.
Deeper engagement with sustainability as a Strategic Goal
One of the Strategic Goals laid out in CSP2021 is to "Deepen our engagement in sustainability." To this end, we are engaged in activities to promote our sustainability in society and the sustainable enhancement of our corporate value.
We further strengthened our commitment to sustainability by identifying and prioritizing social issues that need to be addressed and utilized this to create our new materiality matrix. We reevaluated 31 key issues we had already identified and narrowed them down to 19. We then prioritized 9 issues that were particularly important and labeled each as a "materiality." These materialities help us to prioritize our sustainability efforts. Cross-functional teams have been formed for each of these nine materialities to formulate and implement action plans to achieve the goals by 2025.
Related links
Click here to watch the announcement video (May 26, 2021)
