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« Back to News HeadlinesTraditional Japanese Ceremony (Kagami Wari) launches Astellas European Headquarters in UK
June 10, 2005Astellas, the pharmaceutical company formed by the merger of Fujisawa and Yamanouchi, was officially welcomed to Britain by Dr Felicity Harvey of the Department of Health in the Orangery at Kensington Palace on June 2nd 2005.
The traditional Japanese ceremony – Kagami Wari – involves breaking the lid of a cask of sake by striking it with special mallets. This was performed by Dr Harvey, Dr Hatsuo Aoki, Chairman of Astellas Pharma Inc, and Mr Yasuo Ishii, Chairman and CEO of Astellas Europe.
Astellas, which has located its European headquarters in Staines, just outside London, is around the 17th largest pharmaceutical company in the world with sales of more than $8.2 billion and 15,500 employees.
In Europe, Astellas has about 3,500 employees, eighteen local affiliates, six manufacturing plants and two R&D centres, making Astellas the largest Japanese pharmaceutical company in Europe.
Dr Felicity Harvey who is Head of Medicines, Pharmacy and Industry Group of the Department of Health said that the government was delighted to welcome Astellas to the UK and that the government would continue to ensure that the UK remains the leading European country in pharmaceutical research.
Dr Aoki, Chairman of Astellas, outlined the reasons for the merger, which included the need to have a bigger R&D budget – now $1.3 billion – and the financial scale to compete with the mega pharmaceutical companies.
He also explained that the different R&D approaches of Fujisawa and Yamanouchi were complementary and will enable Astellas to increase the productivity of its R&D activities.
Fujisawa»s research was strong in microbial chemistry, as exemplified by the development of its immunosupressant, Prograf; while Yamanouchi had a strong heritage in small molecule chemistry, as exemplified by its over-active bladder drug Vesicare.
The Astellas» pipeline has more than forty projects in Phase II, Phase III and in registration.
Europe is Astellas» largest market after Japan with about €1.5 billion of sales focussed on three therapeutic areas – Transplantation, Urology and Dermatology.