Japan, February 3, 2009 - Astellas Pharma Inc. (“Astellas”; headquarters: Tokyo; president and CEO: Masafumi Nogimori) announced today that it will implement changes to its global development organization effective on April 1, 2009.
Astellas has implemented a global matrix management system, under which Profit Centers in each area, together with their support functions, are locally operated while the functions of Drug Discovery Research, Development and Technology are implementing functional management throughout the world to enable quick and accurate decision making. In support of this plan, Astellas established its global development headquarters, Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc. (APGD) in April 2008. At that time, the president of APGD became the head of the global development function.
In an effort to further strengthen its drug development capabilities and competitiveness in the global pharmaceutical market, Astellas is implementing the following organizational changes.
Details of the changes are as follows:
(1) Global positions for global integration
Astellas will establish the following positions in order to strengthen the integrated global operational platform, project management capabilities and project administration capabilities. Each representative will report to the president of APGD.
Global Development Operations Head (Global DO Head)
- Be responsible for the skill sets, systems and structures needed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the integrated global operational platform including investigation of site selection, monitoring, analysis of clinical data and reporting.
- This position has direct functional responsibility for development operations in Europe and the US.
Global Development Project Management Head (Global PM Head)
- This position is established to advance and improve scheduling management and interactions with other collaborative divisions and to enhance integrated global project management.
- Based in Tokyo, this position will manage a group of Global Project Management Leaders (GPML) who will be assigned for each development project.
Global Development Planning and Administration Head (Global PA Head)
- This position, based in Tokyo, is established to advance and improve interactions with all collaborative divisions and to enhance integrated global planning and administration including drafting/managing midterm plan and budget.
(2) Therapeutic area based positions at the optimal locations
Astellas will establish Global Development Therapeutic Area Heads (Global TA Head) in order to promote the development projects on a more scientific basis for each therapeutic area. Based on the Center of Excellence, Astellas will build a therapeutic area-based global project team system in each optimal location.
Global Development Therapeutic Area Heads (Global TA Heads)
- This position is accountable for the leadership of development projects for the 8 selected therapeutic areas including Urology, Transplantation, Inflammation/Immunology (including Gastrointestinal Diseases), CNS, Pain, Oncology, Diabetes/Metabolism/Cardiovascular and Infectious Diseases.
- The Urology, Diabetes/Metabolism/Cardiovascular and Pain Global TA Heads will be based in the Netherlands, whereas the Transplantation, Inflammation/Immunology (including Gastrointestinal Diseases), CNS, Infectious Diseases and Oncology Global TA Heads will be based in the US.
Strengthening of the Global Project Team Structure
- In order to reinforce effective and efficient product development, cross-functional Global Project Teams, which will be headed by the Global Development Project Leader (GDPL), will be organized.
- The GDPL is responsible for the leadership of assigned development projects from pre-clinical to approval and will report to the Global TA Head.
- The core team members for the Global Project Teams will generally include representatives from Development Operations, Project Management, Regulatory, Medical and Clinical Pharmacology.
