Top Management Commitment
Message from the President
Promoting Sustainability Management to Achieve Sustained Growth
Sumitomo Pharma Group defines the practice of its Mission, "To broadly contribute to society through value creation based on innovative research and development activities for the betterment of healthcare and fuller lives of people worldwide," that contributes to the realization of a sustainable society and leads to the sustained enhancement of its corporate value as "Sustainability Management."
In order to promote Sustainability Management, it is important to integrate diverse
and changing issues and needs of society into business. The social issues on which we are most focused,
leveraging the strengths of the Group, are health-related issues. The number of people suffering from
non-communicable diseases is increasing on the background of global population growth and other factors, and
medical needs for psychiatric and neurological disorders and cancer are expanding as aging of the population
progresses.
I believe that the Group has a responsibility to continuously create innovative solutions to these health
issues. We would like to contribute to the building of a healthy and vibrant society by continuing to
provide value that only the Group can offer, not only to support the well-being of patients, but also to
assist their families and caregivers. We have positioned “Development of innovative products and healthcare
solutions” as most important among our Material Issues, which we identify based on the two axes of
“expectations from society” and “impact on corporate value enhancement.”
For example, in the Psychiatry & Neurology area, one of the priority disease areas
under our Mid-term Business Plan 2027 (MTBP 2027), which started in April 2023, we are working on a wide
range of new products, from small molecule drugs based on our cumulative experience and expertise to
regenerative medicine & cell therapy utilizing technologies acquired through our pioneering efforts, and
non-pharmaceutical solutions for frontier business. We aim to establish a unique global position by bringing
innovation to conventional treatment systems through a variety of approaches and contributing to all phases
of the patient journey, from disease prevention to return to society.
Innovation is necessary to generate these advanced solutions, and the source of this innovation is human
resources (HR). “Instilling corporate culture and implementing HR strategies” is one of priority issues
identified in the MTBP2027, and we will work to build up an HR portfolio, empower diverse HR, and penetrate
our philosophy globally to maintain a sense of unity and high engagement within the Group. Through these
efforts, we will achieve individual and business growth and continuously provide value to society.
We are committed to creating innovative products and healthcare solutions that will best contribute to Goal 3 (good health and well-being) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are also committed to environmental initiatives such as those to tackle climate change, which humanity urgently needs to address; respect for human rights of our stakeholders including employees; and promotion of compliance to further enhance corporate ethics as a company in the life sciences industry. Thus, while focusing on Goal 3, we will continue to help society be more sustainable and strive for the sustained growth of the Group by further strengthening our efforts to achieve goals beyond Goal 3 throughout our entire business.
Finally, on behalf of Sumitomo Pharma, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all stakeholders for your interest in the Company and ask for your continued understanding and support.
Message from the Executive Officer
Instilling Our Philosophy and Identifying, Updating, and Focusing on Material Issues
Instilling Our Philosophy
The Sumitomo Pharma Group Philosophy comprises the Mission as the significance of the Group’s existence, commitment and duty to society, the Values (Patient First, Always with Integrity, One Diverse Team) as standards to be shared by all executives and employees, and the Declaration of Conduct as a code to be followed in our daily work. Even in a challenging business environment, we believe it is critical to instill our Philosophy, which is the foundation on which all executives and employees base their business operations, so that our Group can contribute to solving social issues and continue to increase our corporate value. We will further enhance the Group's sense of unity by such means as expanding this to all Group companies, posting notices on each company's intranet, and conducting regular educational programs.
For more information on the Group's Philosophy, please see “Philosophy.”
Material Issues: Focused Efforts and Continuous Updates
We identified the Material Issues in July 2018; however, we thoroughly reviewed our Material Issues in March 2023, based on subsequent social changes, the progress of our initiatives, and dialogues with our stakeholders. In this update, we are particularly conscious of the need to both contribute to a sustainable society and achieve our own sustained growth by creating value that only we can deliver, utilizing the Group's capital (strengths) in response to the diverse and changing social expectations and demands. To these ends, we have identified important issues to be addressed as Material Issues.
Along with the identification of Material Issues, we have also set the targets and KPIs for the Material Issues. For example, for one of the KPI for our most important Material Issue, “Development of innovative products and healthcare solutions,” we have set a target of launching seven products, including non-pharmaceutical solutions, in the Psychiatry & Neurology area by FY2027. By focusing on and continuously updating Material Issues in this way, we hope to create value more efficiently and effectively, thereby contributing to solving social issues and growing as a company with a meaningful existence.
For more information on the Group's Material Issues, please see “Material Issues.”