Business Units
The Sumitomo Pharma Group’s core business is its Pharmaceutical Business.
In order to deliver innovative and useful pharmaceuticals to people of not just Japan but the world over, we are focusing our efforts on the research and development of new drugs, and at the same time, we proactively share information on our products in order to improve customer satisfaction.
Sumitomo Pharma’s value chain
Sumitomo’s value chain, including R&D, production/quality control, sales/marketing, regulatory compliance & quality assurance, medical science, as well as M&A and alliance.
Value Delivered to Society

- 1.By continually creating solutions, primarily in the form of innovative pharmaceuticals, we contribute to improving not just the treatments received by patients but also the QOL (quality of life) of patients and their families.
- 2.In addition to ensuring a stable supply of high-quality pharmaceuticals, we provide healthcare professionals as well as patients and their families with appropriate information to ensure the correct understanding of the proper use of our pharmaceutical products and the diseases they are indicated for.
- 3.We contribute to scientific advancement and pave the way to new possibilities in preventive as well as curative healthcare, by elucidating disease mechanisms and realizing new modalities such as regenerative medicine/cell therapy, through our research and development activities.
-
Pharmaceutical Business
Research

We direct our research efforts to two priority disease areas (Psychiatry & Neurology and Oncology) and other areas.
- Basic research (2–3 years): Discover and create new compounds that will be the starting point for medicines.
- Non-clinical studies (3–5 years): Examine the pharmacological activity and toxicity of candidate compounds for medicines using animals and cultured cells
- Make extensive use of cutting-edge technologies that have been developed by ourselves or obtained from academia or biotech companies.
Clinical Development

Leveraging our global development organization, we aim to secure early regulatory approvals by forming strategic clinical development plans and conducting clinical developments efficiently.
- Clinical studies (3–7 years): Clinical studies for obtaining approval are divided into three phases and are conducted in clinical sites such as hospitals with the enrollment of healthy volunteers and patients after obtaining their informed consent.
- Design products and develop processes to make products that are easy to use.
- Submit new drug applications to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for approval.
Production and Quality Control

We use strict quality controls to ensure the stable supply of our products.
- Consistently produce high quality products under our global supply chain system that covers procurement of raw materials through to distribution under strict quality controls.
- Provide medical institutions and dispensing pharmacies all over Japan with products.
Regulatory Compliance & Quality Assurance

We assure the quality of our products and product information at a global level throughout the lifecycle of our products, from the development stage through to post-marketing stage.
- Established a quality assurance and audit system that delivers global “A-N-SHI-N* .”
- Conduct integrated management of safety information, including adverse reactions, from the development stage (clinical studies) to the postmarketing stage and engage in proactive safety measures and provision of information.
- * A-N-SHI-N: Trustworthiness, reliability, peace of mind, making people feel reassured and safe.
Medical Science

We create, provide, and disseminate information of high standard that is based on robust scientific evidence and meets medical needs.
- Build up and disseminate evidence to satisfy unmet medical needs.
Sales and Marketing

We provide healthcare professionals with information on the proper use of our pharmaceutical products, by building an information system which caters to changes in the market environment.
- Through an information provision system capable of adapting to market changes, provide healthcare professionals with information on proper use of products.
M&A and Alliance

In the interest of expanding our development pipeline, we are proactively pursuing opportunities for M&A, in-licensing, and alliance making, while also promoting alliances with external research institutions.
- Actively promote strategic investment in acquisitions and in-licensing
- Consider a broad range of assets and alliances in our focus areas for in-licensing, with a priority on late-stage development assets and approved products.
- Enter into research alliances with research institutions that include universities in Japan and overseas, as well as biotech companies with innovative technologies.
Contribution to Societies

We play our part in tackling social issues by listening to the requests and wishes of our stakeholders, and reflecting them in our business operations as well as CSR activities.
Environment

We recognize the responsibility we bear for our own environmental impact, and we are working to reduce our environmental impact across all business activities.