Astellas Pharma is among the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. As of 2018, the company employs more than 16,000 people across the globe with about 70 in the Czech and Slovak republics. Astellas Pharma was established in April 2005 by the merger of two Japanese pharmaceutical heavyweights, Yamanouchi and Fujisawa. The latter company’s history dates back to 1894.
Astellas Pharma stands at the forefront of health care change, turning innovative science into value for patients. Therapeutical areas the company is known for in the Czech and Slovak markets include urology, oncology, immunology and nephrology.
As with many other industries, the pharmaceutical industry is experiencing accelerated changes triggered by external factors, meaning it must keep transforming itself.
To help the company transform and achieve its vision, the Strategic Plan 2018 was introduced last year. In essence, Astellas Pharma’s activities, delivered through a corporate culture based on the highest ethical standards and integrity, aim to maximize the “outcomes that matter to patients” and minimize the “cost to the health care system of delivering those outcomes.”
Astellas Pharma is focusing on improving access to health in the four areas of creating innovation, enhancing availability, strengthening health care systems and improving health literacy.
An important part of the Strategic Plan 2018 is pursuing operational excellence. In practice, it means maximizing the use of the latest technologies, such as real-world data, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence.
Astellas Pharma employees play the most valuable role in transforming the company and in achieving enhanced levels of enterprise value. Globally, the company promotes an internal culture called The Astellas Way, comprising five core values of patient focus, ownership, results, openness and integrity.
After 14 years in one location, Astellas Pharma moved its Prague headquarters at the beginning of 2019. Rudy Kozak, the general manager of Astellas Pharma in Prague, explained the purpose behind this: “We did this in order to provide our employees with modern, open plan premises. As in other global companies, a focus on modern internal communication and collaboration and new-ways-to-work methods are being supported by state-of-the-art office technology.”
