Agile Mindset: Enhancing Patient Access and Engagement
This article contains references to real patients sharing their personal experiences. Individual experiences may vary. There is no intention to endorse any specific treatments or medications. Please consult your healthcare provider for medical advice.
Bringing new treatments to the patients who need them is just as critical as discovering them. Yet, traditional product development and commercialization models can be cumbersome, with slow decision making and process inefficiencies. To address these challenges, Astellas has adopted Agile ways of working. Being Agile is about streamlining processes, enhancing cross-functional collaboration and accelerating the path from innovation to impact.
Charged with leading this transformation in the U.S. is Mike Petroutsas, President and Head of U.S. Commercial. By embracing the full potential of Agile at Astellas, he’s leading the shift toward more dynamic, patient focused and commercially efficient ways of working. In this article, Mike shares insights into how Astellas is leveraging an Agile mindset to speed the time to market for our therapies and bring greater value to patients and customers.
Redefining Commercialization in Pharma
Agile is a way of thinking that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration and continuous learning to adapt to change and achieve high-performing results, rather than rigidly following a plan.
“Traditionally, we have viewed commercialization as something linear that comes in just before product launch,” explains Mike. “Today, however, we recognize that commercial teams need to be involved much earlier and need to be part of the conversation across functions, ensuring that we’re thinking about patient access, market dynamics and real-world applications much sooner and from varying perspectives.”
This approach is designed to improve cross-functional collaboration, which breaks away from the traditional – and siloed – method of drug development and commercialization. With cross-functional teams, companies are much better poised to identify and address issues quicker, enabling real-time adjustments to keep the focus on delivery at every stage. In 2024, Astellas opened two, bicoastal, world-class biotech innovation centers, in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., that put this principle into action. Both centers were purposefully designed to promote face-to-face interaction, grounded in the principle that impactful ideas often arise from spontaneous, cross-functional collaboration.
Beyond the Buzzword: Making the Agile Mindset Work at Astellas
But how exactly does Astellas put Agile ways of working into action? In a keynote presentation at Reuters Pharma USA in March 2025, Mike explained that Agile at Astellas is about acting quickly, learning continuously and adapting based on real-world insights. Astellas applies this by breaking down complex challenges into manageable steps getting them done and iterating quickly – repeatedly refining and enhancing solutions and using them to inform the next challenge. With this laser focus on delivery, teams can work together to bring a product to market faster.
This iterative approach keeps commercialization efforts dynamic, efficient and aligned with patient and market needs, helping Astellas move faster without sacrificing impact. “We now encourage our teams to prioritize making consistent progress,” says Mike. “This shift to an Agile mindset has fundamentally changed the way we do business, helping us bring solutions to market faster and in ways that truly meet patient and healthcare provider needs.”
Adapting to a Changing Industry
As the pharmaceutical landscape evolves, adopting an Agile mindset isn’t just about creating a competitive advantage – it’s about adaptation. Several industry trends, from rising R&D costs to increasing complexity in healthcare systems and growing patient expectations, are pushing the need for pharmaceutical companies to change.
One of the most significant shifts is the growing demand for personalized medicine. “Physicians and patients are looking for more targeted therapies,” explains Mike. “Patients today are highly informed and expect tailored solutions. Our role is to ensure they get the right information at the right time during their diagnosis and treatment.”
The ability to adapt to quickly changing circumstances is a cornerstone of Agile. This means doing what’s needed, not just what’s planned. This adaptability ensures companies can remain competitive and responsive to evolving market demands.
Real-World Impact: Patient Stories
Agile ways of working are about more than just embracing new internal processes – it’s about impacting patient lives. During his presentation at Reuters Pharma USA, Mike shared two patient stories that spotlight how Astellas’ Agile approach is making a difference:
Tailoring Education to All Patients: Diagnosed with dry AMD, the patient's condition eventually progressed to geographic atrophy. Astellas’ engagement with her helped the company recognize the need to tailor its outreach to younger patients, ultimately improving patient education and support materials. The insight gained from her story has led to new patient segmentation strategies, ensuring that marketing materials and educational resources better reflect the full range of affected individuals.
Transforming Awareness in Women’s Health: A woman suffering from debilitating hot flashes for more than 10 years described feeling like her insides were starting to “catch fire.” Many physicians don’t prioritize treatment for hot flashes, but Astellas saw the urgency. Development of this drug is an example of how different disciplines across Astellas came together to make a difference in people’s lives. From treating the most serious, life-threatening diseases to improving the everyday lives of people, Astellas’ Agile ways of working are helping to speed the time to bring innovations to market.
The Future of Agile in Pharma
As Astellas continues embedding Agile into its operations, the focus now shifts to scaling the approach across different business functions. While its impact on commercialization is already clear, expanding Agile further requires navigating the complexities of change within a large organization.
“We’re seeing firsthand how Agile transforms commercialization, but this is just the beginning,” says Mike. “The same mindset that helps us bring medicines to market faster also can streamline market access, optimize patient engagement and drive smarter decision making across the organization.”
As part of this expansion, Astellas is also turning its attention to measurement, exploring meaningful ways to track the real-world impact of Agile across functions. This includes tools like Net Promoter Scores to assess physician satisfaction and determine whether they would recommend Astellas, providing a key customer-focused performance indicator. At the same time, analyzing digital engagement metrics such as click-through rates, time spent on content, and site navigation patterns. helps the Astellas team to understand what resonates most with stakeholders and where to refine content, ensuring that materials are both relevant and impactful.
Implementing this shift isn’t easy. Long-established processes must evolve, and embracing Agile requires a fundamental mindset change across teams. But in today’s healthcare landscape, staying static is not an option. By embedding Agile across all functions that impact patient care, Astellas is setting a new standard for how pharma operates. This transformation signals that Astellas is not just responding to industry shifts, but actively shaping the future of healthcare. As the company continues to evolve, one thing is clear: the Agile mindset isn’t just an internal initiative, it’s a catalyst for real-world impact.
Learn more about Astellas' collaborative approach to innovation
Shaping Tomorrow, Together: How Partnerships Can Unlock Scientific Innovation for Patients
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Science, Collaboration and Breakthroughs: Insights from Astellas' Life Sciences and West Coast Innovation Centers
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