Eisai Co. Ltd. announced today that the company’s research and development organization, Eisai Product Creation Systems (EPCS), has undergone a transformation with the aim of further focusing and strengthening its product creation capabilities. In order to fulfill its sole mission of ensuring that innovative new drugs that meet unmet medical needs are made available to patients as early as possible, EPCS has flexibly implemented organizational changes deemed necessary according to the progress of Eisai’s development pipeline. The changes will allow Eisai to better prioritize and define its product creation activities by creating a leaner organizational structure that will more efficiently drive forward high-priority projects, increase focus on next-generation products and investigational compounds, and enhance the pursuit of innovation during development and discovery. To reflect Eisai’s increased focus on key drug discovery areas, EPCS has undergone a shift in its structure. Previously, EPCS had a centralized management model within a single Core Function Unit (CFU) for clinical support functions worldwide. The new model has transferred those management responsibilities to other PCUs/CFUs in order to streamline communications and decision making. Other key clinical support functions such as those for statistical analysis and clinical pharmacology have been placed under the direct jurisdiction of the CCLO in an effort to further improve clinical success rates. The former Scientific & Operational Clinical Support (SOCS) CFU has also been dissolved as part of these changes.
Additionally, in regard to drug discovery in the area of neuroscience at Eisai’s Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania (EMEA) Knowledge Centre (EKC) in the United Kingdom, focus on the Open Innovation function, which primarily conducts joint research with University College London, has been increased, while the EKC’s medicinal chemistry function has been dissolved.
To support advancements in Eisai’s development pipeline, functions for small-molecule process development have been consolidated in Japan (Kashima, Tsukuba) and India (Vizag), while the related functions at the Andover site in the United States have been dissolved. Andover will continue to serve as the discovery research hub in the United States.
At the same time, in order to further strengthen and promote development of biopharmaceuticals as next-generation drugs, the biopharmaceutical development functions that had been divided between research sites in the United States (Exton, Andover) have been consolidated into the newly established Biopharmaceutical Development Department, which is located at the Exton site.
The reorganizations will result in the reduction of approximately 130 positions in Europe and the United States.
Date: November 29, 2013
Source: Eisai Co. Ltd.
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
