Astellas Pharma Inc. ("Astellas"; headquarters: Tokyo; President and CEO: Toichi Takenaka) has decided to offer an early retirement program for its employees at its Doshomachi office and employees of its subsidiary Astellas Business Service Co., Ltd. working in the Osaka region.
1. Background of the program
Astellas has decided to transfer functions of its Doshomachi office (Chuo-ku, Osaka) including the headquarters building of the former Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to offices in and around its headquarters (Chuo-ku, Tokyo) on October 1, 2006 in order to optimize business efficiency. Basically, all employees working at Post Marketing Product Development, International Licensees Business, (part of) Medical Information, Osaka Accounting Center, etc. in Osaka will be transferred to Tokyo. Employees of Astellas Business Service Co., Ltd., which provides business support services to Astellas on a contract basis, working in the Osaka region will also be transferred to the Tokyo region or otherwise relocated. The early retirement program is offered as an option for those employees who can not leave the Osaka region for various reasons.
2. Details of the early retirement program
(1) Eligibility: about 150 employees of Astellas working at its Doshomachi office and about 70 employees of Astellas Business Service Co., Ltd. working in the Osaka region
(2) Target number of applicants: not decided
(3) Premium added to the normal retirement allowance: A premium will be added to the normal retirement allowance.
(4) Application period: March 13 - April 28, 2006
(5) Date of retirement: September 30, 2006
3. Future prospects
In addition to the normal retirement allowance, a premium will be paid to all applicants for this early retirement program, but the total amount to be paid is unclear at this stage because the target number of applicants has not been decided. The cost related to this program will be reflected as a special loss in the settlement of accounts for the period ending March 2006 for applications received by the end of March and in the settlement of accounts for the period ending March 2007 for those received after the end of March.
