TOKYO, July 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Astellas announced progress on the Company's efforts to reshape its research framework at its R&D meeting held in Tokyo on the 10th July. The meeting provided an opportunity for Astellas to present a comprehensive overview of the Company's late-stage clinical programmes and corporate strategy. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an update on the initiatives for Astellas innovation, drug discovery research and pipeline progress.
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Astellas' ongoing focus on innovation has been a driving force behind the Company's success in Europe, with recently launched products like XTANDI™ (enzalutamide) and BETMIGA™ (mirabegron) helping achieve sales growth of more than 8% in the EMEA region in FY2013.
Yoshihiko Hatanaka, President and CEO at Astellas, opened the meeting by discussing how Astellas will continue to drive sustainable growth through maximising the value of the product portfolio, pursuing operational excellence and enhancing innovation through reshaping the Company's research framework, and developing network research systems by utilising external resources.
Sef Kurstjens, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, provided a development overview of the following compounds:
In May last year, Astellas formed a strategic alliance with Amgen to develop and commercialise five Amgen pipeline medicines in Japan. Development updates for three of those products were also highlighted at the meeting, including rilotumumab (AMG 102) for gastric cancer, evolocumab (AMG 145) for hyperlipidemia, and romosozumab (AMG 785) for osteoporosis.
"Our late stage-pipeline is strong and tightly aligned to our commercial strategy," commented Ken Jones, President and CEO, Astellas Pharma EMEA. "R&D is a major priority in Europe, with scientists from more than 30 countries working at our drug development centre in the Netherlands. Research undertaken here and around the world is helping develop a wealth of investigational products that will support the Company's continued growth in the EMEA region and globally."
"Astellas has a long track record of delivering value to shareholders through efficient investment in R&D. This investment has provided several important new treatment options that have helped to meet patients' unmet medical needs," said Kurstjens. "As a result of our efforts, we have established Global Category Leadership (GCL) positions in urology and transplantation and an emerging GCL position in oncology. We're pleased with our pipeline progress in these therapeutic categories and are excited about our future prospects to expand our R&D efforts to explore additional areas of unmet medical needs."
Wataru Uchida, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery Research, discussed the Company's research initiatives and provided details of potential new therapeutic areas that Astellas is pursuing and novel technology platforms that the Company is utilising, including ClearPath, ADC and regenerative medicine. In addition, Uchida discussed the preclinical research achievements for ASP2215, a potential treatment for leukaemia, and ASP8273, a potential treatment for non-small cell lung cancer patients with EGFR mutations.
About Astellas Pharma EMEA
Astellas Pharma EMEA operates in 40 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is the regional business of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. Astellas is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceuticals. The organisation's focus is to deliver outstanding R&D and marketing to continue growing in the world pharmaceutical market. Astellas' presence in Europe also includes an R&D site and three manufacturing plants. The Company employs approximately 4,350 staff across these regions. For more information about Astellas Pharma EMEA, please visit http://www.astellas.eu.
