Sunao Manabe
President and CEO
Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.
At Daiichi Sankyo, our 2030 Vision is to become an “innovative global healthcare company contributing to the sustainable development of society,” as announced in April 2021 along with our new five-year business plan. The building blocks necessary to achieve our 2030 Vision include strengthening and broadening our Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) management, and continuing to transform our organization toward our FY2025 goal to become a “global pharma innovator with a competitive advantage in oncology.
As we shift into our growth stage with our new five-year business plan, we will tackle those social issues we are able to, in order to contribute to enrich quality of life around the world through our business activities and practices, thereby contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We will keep challenging ourselves to continuously provide innovative solutions based on our strengths—science and technology.
Realizing our 2030 Vision as one Daiichi Sankyo Group
―With the 2030 Vision newly announced, tell us about the relationship between Our Mission, our FY2025 Goals, and the Daiichi Sankyo group of companies’ (Daiichi Sankyo Group’s) 2030 Vision.
The Purpose of the Daiichi Sankyo Group is to “contribute to the enrichment of the quality of life around the world,” and we live up to this Purpose by accomplishing our Mission to “create innovative pharmaceuticals addressing diverse medical needs.” The 2030 Vision is our aspiration of what Daiichi Sankyo will be in the future.
Looking beyond 2025, I expect an era of full-fledged “healthcare as a service,” in which pharmaceutical companies provide comprehensive care to people across a wide range of areas, to become a reality by 2030. As we enter this era, the Daiichi Sankyo Group will seek to contribute to the sustainable development of society by applying a wide range of new modalities to develop therapeutic solutions, such as nucleic acid, LNP-mRNA, 2nd generation ADCs, bispecific antibodies, gene therapy, cell therapy and digital solutions that will benefit patients. We will create unique value by furthering efforts in ESG management that contribute to society.
In addition, with our 2030 Vision now launched and as we are well on our way to achieving our previous Vision (“to be a Global Pharma Innovator with a Competitive Advantage in Oncology”), we are now positioning the previous vision as a “FY2025 Goal”.
―I’d like to ask about Daiichi Sankyo’s financial targets. The revenue target for FY2025 is ¥1.6 trillion. Tell us about possible risks, if any, of not achieving this target
This is the first time since the corporate integration between Daiichi and Sankyo in 2005 that we can expect such tremendous growth in a Five-year Business Plan period. We consider that the financial targets for FY2025 can be achieved if our new innovative medicines, including our three lead antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), show the expected efficacy without unexpected or unacceptable adverse events in the current and planned clinical studies. As with any pharmaceutical innovation, there is a risk that clinical studies do not progress as expected. One way to avoid such potential risk is to improve the quality of our clinical studies. It is crucial to ensure the ongoing management of these studies, including enhanced monitoring of study progress, so that we can not only obtain high-quality data but also determine the potential of individual products and bring them to patients as soon as possible.
―As a key performance indicator (KPI) for FY2025, the operating profit ratio before deduction of R&D expenses has been set at 40%. Tell us about the background for this KPI.
For companies like Daiichi Sankyo that allocate a large budget to R&D, the operating profit for a single fiscal year may fluctuate greatly depending on R&D expenses. Even if the operating profit is negatively affected, for the sustained growth of the company, we must be flexible in allocating an appropriate budget to R&D while effectively managing our portfolio.
Strategic Pillars of the 5th Daiichi Sankyo Five-Year Business Plan
―Strategic Pillar 3 of the 5-Year Business Plan (FY2021–FY2025) is to “identify and build pillars for further growth.” What do you think is a growth driver following our ADCs? Also, tell us your thoughts about the importance of non-oncology fields.
The companies within the Daiichi Sankyo Group are continuously studying various new modalities, including nucleic acid medicine, LNP-mRNA, second-generation ADCs, bispecific antibodies, gene therapy, and cellular therapy. As this research progresses, we will identify the most promising platforms to move into development. Also considering DX as a modality, we will keep an eye on the possibility of creating new therapeutic solutions by utilizing DX or combining DX with other modalities. A recent example is a mobile app for cancer treatment support, which is under joint development in Japan with CureApp, Inc. This app represents a potential new way to help patients by monitoring their condition. Starting from this therapeutic app, we will continuously make efforts to develop various healthcare solutions.
In the vaccine business, LNP-mRNA is highly promising as evidenced by new effective mNRA vaccines that have been launched around the globe for COVID-19. Daiichi Sankyo is also developing a vaccine for COVID-19 which utilizes LNP-mRNA technology. If effective, we will intend to ensure a supply of the vaccine for society as well as seek to address other new infectious diseases by leveraging our internal LNP-mRNA technology, knowledge and skill.
The therapeutic areas of interest include both oncology and non-oncology as we seek to create new options that fulfill unmet medical needs. Although we are currently focusing on the oncology field, I expect that various modality options will enable us to create new therapeutic solutions for other diseases with high unmet medical needs.
―Will the company continue to invest in the future growth of businesses other than the innovative drug business which are operated by affiliated companies, such as Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare, Daiichi Sankyo Espha, and American Regent, considering these businesses are part of Daiichi Sankyo Group’s therapeutic solutions?
All businesses in the Daiichi Sankyo Group contribute to creating new therapeutic solutions as “healthcare as a service.” Namely, American Regent, Daiichi Sankyo Espha, and Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare are making efforts for further growth in the generic injectable drugs business, the authorized generic (AG) business, and the over-the-counter drugs and mail-order business, respectively. The Daiichi Sankyo Group will continue to invest appropriately in these businesses.
―Strategic Pillar 4 describes a concerted focus on a patient-centric mindset.
It is important to create innovative solutions and provide value for those who need them. Thus, among the various stakeholders in the Daiichi Sankyo Group, patients are at the center of everything we do. To be truly patient-centric, we must understand more deeply what patients desire and what healthcare challenges they face. Therefore, we included this key action as a strategic pillar. While many global pharmaceutical companies, regulatory authorities, and patient organizations focus strongly on a patient centric mindset, Japan currently lags behind in this aspect. Thus, I am proud that the COMPASS initiative, implemented by our R&D Division, is a pioneering program for Daiichi Sankyo in Japan that enables us to obtain first-hand information from patients through lectures and dialogue, as well as from occasional hospital training to help us understand the realities of medical care. We will keep strengthening these activities and our mindset across our value chain to develop effective products and provide information from a more patient-centric perspective.
Fostering One DS Culture and Committing to Core Behaviors
We believe exhibiting three Core Behaviors will foster a cross-regional “One DS Culture” throughout the Daiichi Sankyo Group so that we can address rapid globalization and human resource diversification with the expansion of our oncology business.
The three Core Behaviors are: “Be Inclusive and Embrace Diversity,” meaning to understand and recognize diversity in nationality, race, gender, and other important categories; “Collaborate & Trust” meaning to respect and support each other; and “Develop & Grow,” meaning to actively make efforts to achieve personal growth.
A unified Daiichi Sankyo Culture cannot be developed overnight. I expect that Daiichi Sankyo Group company management, including myself and other senior colleagues, will act as role models for our colleagues to practice the Core Behaviors so that we can foster a unified Daiichi Sankyo Culture together.
―What closing message would you like give to your stakeholders?
With the goal to solve social challenges through creation of innovative pharmaceuticals while focusing on SDGs, we will do so by utilizing our strengths in science and technology. Daiichi Sankyo Group will continue to contribute to the enrichment of quality of life around the world.