Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (D4S.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for waiting. We will now begin Daiichi Sankyo's sustainability meeting. I am [ Konishi ] from the Corporate Communications, serving as today's moderator. The speakers today are Okuzawa, Representative Director, President and CEO; Ueno, Director and Head of the Japan business unit. Outside Director, Komatsu; and Outside Director Nishii, Chair of the Board of Directors. Today, using as I've seen, the contents of the value report 2025, which was created with the aim of conveying a value-creation story unique to Daiichi Sankyo, we will explain our sustainability and management strategy, specific initiatives and the challenges we face and our responses. Then we will engage in frank exchanges of opinions with you, and the feedback we receive will be incorporated into the future management and the formulation of the next 5-year business plan. Today, first, Okuzawa will speak about Daiichi Sankyo's sustainable growth, driven by sustainability management. Next, Ueno will explain Daiichi Sankyo patient centricity activities. Then Director Komatsu and Director Nishii, will provide perspectives on Daiichi Sankyo from the standpoint of outside directors. After that, we will have a Q&A session and time for opinion exchange with all speakers. Please note that today's meeting will be recorded. Now Okuzawa-san, please.

This is Okuzawa. Thank you very much for taking the time to participate in Daiichi Sankyo's sustainability meeting today. In today's meeting, I will first explain our sustainability management approach and initiatives towards sustainable value creation. I would then like to hear your feedback and expectations, and reflect them in our next 5-year business plan. I look forward to hearing your honest feedback. First, I'd like to talk about Daiichi Sankyo's sustainability-based value creation. Daiichi Sankyo continues to strive to achieve its purpose of contributing to the enrichment of quality of life around the world by continuously creating innovative pharmaceutical products. Our goal of sustainability management is to contribute to the sustainable society through our business activities. In our current 5-year business plan, we have promoted sustainability management and strengthened our efforts to address materiality. As a result, the value of our nonfinancial capital, including our human resources, knowledge and technology has steadily strengthened, leading to innovation and competitive advantage. In particular, 3 key elements support our value creation. These are science and technology, human resources and patient centricity. First, by fully leveraging our strength in science and technology and focusing on the creation of innovative pharmaceutical products, we have produced world-class results, including DXd ADCs such as ENHERTU. The source of our strength in science and technology lies in our individual human resources. We continue to take on challenges on the front lines. People are the driving force behind value creation and our most important capital. Furthermore, each and every employee shares a common passion based on patient centricity. We work for patients. Our personal purpose, aligned with the company's purpose, which in turn motivates us to take on new challenges. Going forward, we will continue to build and accumulate our unique nonfinancial capital through further strengthening our science and technology and continued investment in human resources as well as through the promotion and implementation of patient centricity. In the next slide, I will discuss the relationship between our human resources initiatives and strengthening our science and technology. Following me, Ueno will talk about Daiichi Sankyo's patient centricity. First, I'd like to talk about our human resources initiatives under the current 5-year business plan. During this period, I believe we have significantly strengthened our group-wide human resources, particularly those supporting our strength in science and technology. First, we focused on recruiting external talent, including new hires. Specifically, we strengthened our recruitment of mid-carrier talents, with extensive experience and skills from global leading pharma companies and the new graduates in Japan, such as outstanding PhD holders who will lead future research, and graduates from technical colleges who will ensure a stable supply of ADC products. Meanwhile, internally, the entire group is providing opportunities for growth and specialized skill development. In Japan, we have increased the mobility of our people to areas of other strengths by providing reskilling opportunities, such as through personnel reassignment and an internal job posting system. We have provided numerous opportunities for individual growth through our expanding business. These include promoting cutting-edge research through the launch of the research institute and smart research lab, increasing global development in line with the expansion of our ADC and oncology businesses, establishing new biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities through capital investment and driving company-wide transformation through advanced digital technologies with project 4D. Through these efforts, we expect Daiichi Sankyo's science and technology talent strengthened across the company to become a major force in generating the next wave of innovation. This hypothetical model illustrates how our human capital initiatives, where investment in people, as outlined in the previous slide, support our strength in science and technology, including ADCs, and lead to long-term innovation as we strive to become a top global oncology company. As introduced in the previous slide, we actively recruit and develop talented personnel from both Japan and overseas in our key areas of research, technology and digital transformation. What enables each employee to maximize their expertise and willingness to take on new challenges is Daiichi Sankyo's unique One DS culture, a culture that values freedom and learning from failure in research and the creation of a rewarding work environment. Furthermore, in addition to developing and expanding attractive research infrastructure, such as the Shinagawa Research Laboratory, we also provide opportunities for growth and challenge through the establishment of research institutes around the world and the global placement of talent there. These efforts combine external and internal knowledge, generating new ideas and synergies one after another. This continuous investment in people strengthens our science and technology in terms of both human capital and intellectual capital. We steadily retain outstanding science and technology talent within the company. And as an organization, we expand our external collaborative network and attract highly engaged employees, creating a strong execution-oriented organization. As a result, we have made significant advances in our research, global development and manufacturing capabilities, facilitating the next innovation. These advances include the accumulation of knowledge, technology and discerning expertise as well as improvements to our ability to conduct clinical trials, shortened development times and streamline ADC manufacturing. In the short term, we expect to see improvement in the success rate of identifying promising lead compounds, the promotion of cutting-edge research and increased productivity through automation of experiments. In the mid- to long term, we will continue to expand our diverse product lineup and the pipeline using new modalities, establishing a system for the continuous creation and stable supply of pharmaceutical products with social impact. The innovations, excellent pipelines and a challenging talent we have developed in this way will attract new talent and lead to the accumulation of even more advanced knowledge. Indeed, a virtuous cycle and innovation path has been created, in which investment in people generate innovation, which in turn attracts and develops people. This virtuous cycle supports increased social and economic value. While this is nearly a hypothesis at this point, we plan to analyze various information to verify it during our next 5-year business plan. Finally, I'd like to talk about what I, as our CEO, envision for Daiichi Sankyo. There is a concept called Sanpo Yoshi or 3-way good, good for the seller, good for the buyer and good for society, which means practicing what is good for our customers, ourselves and society. For Daiichi Sankyo, Sanpo Yoshi means growing as a company through a business that contributes to patients, guided by our purpose, and then sharing the results in a balanced manner with our stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, partner companies and even national and local governments and regulatory authorities. So what is the corporate value we aim for? True value is trust, which cannot be measured by numbers alone. The essence of Daiichi Sankyo's value lies in the trusting relationships we build with our diverse stakeholders. We will continue to embrace new challenges and realize value co-creation with our stakeholders, cherishing this trust and delivering hope to patients to remain a company that makes them feel thankful to have Daiichi Sankyo. We will continue to take on new challenges and realize value co-creation with our stakeholders. Recognizing the importance of this trust, we are currently formulating our next 5-year business plan. We are engaged in extensive discussions on such topics as what our stakeholders expect from us? What our 2035 vision? And next 5-year business plan, what we value and what we will not? We expect to be able to present our 2035 vision and our goals and strategies through 2030 at the beginning of next fiscal year. Please look forward to it. This concludes my presentation. Next, we will explain patient centricity, one of the key elements supporting Daiichi Sankyo's value creation using specific examples. I'd like to hand the baton to Director Ueno, who leads this initiative globally.

I am Ueno. Until now, I have been engaged in development and medical affairs work. And since 2024, I have been especially assigned for patient centricity, working on the global promotion of patient centricity. In June of this year, I was appointed a director. And in addition to contributing to the development of the Japan business unit and medical affairs, I will also contribute to the promotion of diversity as a director. Now I will explain Daiichi Sankyo's patient centricity. This slide shows the overall picture of our patient centricity. The desire to help patients find a hope in treatment is a driving force behind all of our corporate activities. Always sincerely facing patients starting from their voices, we promote value co-creation across the entire value chain, including drug discovery, development, manufacturing and information provision. In promoting the patient centricity, I myself, a especially assigned officer, have focused on activities over the past 1.5 years. Particularly, I have emphasized direct dialogue with stakeholders inside and outside the company, personally visiting sites, both domestically and internationally. Within the company, through hearings and exchanges of opinions with major organizational unit heads, I have advanced the promotion of understanding of patient centricity and the building of a foundation for its practice. Also by adding patient centricity sessions to various trainings such as DS Academy, I have worked on permeating the culture. Outside the company, at academic conferences in Japan and abroad, such as ASCO and ESMO, I have insisted on direct dialogue with patient groups, deepening understanding from a global patient perspective and striving to build trust. Also at events such as the UB Pharma Summit and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology Japan, I have focused on disseminating Daiichi Sankyo's patient centricity philosophy and activities. These initiatives are an important foundation for both responding to patient needs and achieving sustainable growth as a company. Next, I will introduce 2 examples of how this philosophy and the foundation building are leading to concrete value creation. One is an initiative in the technology unit. Our formulation researchers actually visited medical institutions, while pharmacists and clinical trial coordinators from the field came to our factories. Through such 2-way site visits and exchanges of opinions, we were able to accurately grasp the needs and issues of the medical field and build mutual understanding and trust. The voices obtained from direct dialog at the site have been utilized to improve packaging specifications of formulations. The next example is a case where rapid collaboration between Daiichi Sankyo Brazil and America region led to social contribution. There was an urgent request from the Brazilian Ministry of Health to support patients presenting with poisoning symptoms. Daiichi Sankyo Brazil immediately conducted an investigation, and it was confirmed that America region possessed antidotes. The 2 companies quickly build a cooperative system. So [indiscernible] cleaning one by one, the complex regulatory procedures, logistical adjustments and operational issues on site, and completed a transportation process that would normally take several weeks in only 4 business days. In this case 3 shows the patient centricity as a shared value is the driving force that moves us beyond countries and organizations. In this way, while aiming for concrete value creation, starting from the voices of patients and the medical field, we will continue to promote Daiichi Sankyo style patient centricity. Finally, I'd also like to touch on future prospects. Since our founding, the feeling of thinking of patients that has taken root in each employee, including management, is the source of our innovation. By shaping that feeling through employee actions and management support, expanding patient contacts across regions and functions and organically collaborating within the company, we will reflect patients' voices across the entire value chain. That is that Daiichi Sankyo's patient centricity. Going forward, we will continue to work as one company starting from patients' voices toward value creation. Thank you for your attention. Next, we will have an explanation from Outside Director Komatsu.

Before I give the floor to Director Komatsu, I'd like to give a brief biography. He was appointed as an outside director of our company in June 2022. He was appointed Chief of Nephrology at St. Lukes International Hospital in 1998 and Director of Kidney Center at St. Lukes International Hospital in 2007. He was then appointed Vice President and Chief Quality and Safety Officer at St. Lukes International Hospital in 2011. In 2017, he was appointed Professor of the Department of Healthcare Quality and Safety at Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine and the Director of the Healthcare Quality and Safety Department Gunma University Hospital. He then served as specialty appointed Vice President of Gunma University Hospital. And in 2023, he was appointed Professor Emeritus and especially appointed Professor at Gunma University, Advisory Board member at Gunma University Hospital and Vice President of Itabashi Chuo Medical Center. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health in 2010. He is a leading expert in chronic kidney disease treatment, practicing team medicine and the patient participatory medicine as well as an expert in medical public health and medical quality and safety management.

Thank you for your kind introduction. I am Komatsu. Today, from the perspective of an outside director and a health care professional, I'd like to discuss Daiichi Sankyo's science and technology, patient centricity and future expectations. First, I'd like to talk about science and technology. Daiichi Sankyo was established through the merger of the former Daiichi Pharmaceutical and the former Sankyo, combining their respective histories and growing into a culture built on this foundation. With its outstanding R&D know-how and technological capabilities, it has realized many innovations, including ADCs. Our science and technology, which enables us to deliver innovative medicines that transforms the standard of care to health care professionals has been highly recognized worldwide, including receiving the Prix Galien award. Leveraging this strength in science and technology, I hope to see the company expand beyond the ADC field and fully demonstrate its global competitiveness as one of Japan's leading drug discovery companies by exploring new fields. To that end, I will continue to offer advice from my professional perspective as a health care professional. As a medical and public health expert, I'm particularly interested in Daiichi Sankyo's patient-centric approach. Patient centricity not only contributes to patient treatment and satisfaction, but it's also positioned as an important concept supporting the development of comprehensive health care, including research and development, diagnosis, prevention and monitoring. In recent years, its social and economic impact has attracted attention. And the patient-centric approaches have been recognized by international organizations such as the WHO and the OECD as well as from the perspective of ESG investment as a factor in increasing corporate value. In drug development, development of clinical trial protocols that reflect patient feedback leads to increased consent acquisition rates and continuity of clinical trial participation. As a result, development time is shortened, costs are reduced and data quality is improved. We view these efforts as an important strategy for enhancing our company's mid- to long-term competitiveness, directly linked to maintaining and strengthening product value and gaining market trust. In addition, in the field, it is essential to provide easy-to-understand explanatory materials that allow patients to correctly understand the medical treatment and the medications they receive. I believe that patient-friendly materials can lead to early detection and early treatment of potential adverse events, improving treatment continuation rates, quality of life and even prognosis. The idea that patients are no longer passive recipients of medical care as they have been in the past, but rather partners in the creation of health care, in other words, co-creation, is the essence of patient centricity. This approach is crucial for realizing our purpose-driven management, and we strongly believe it is one of the key elements supporting the achievement of our social mission and sustainable growth, not only for patients themselves, but also for health care providers and our company. This slide presents specific examples of patient-centricity activities at pharmaceutical companies. I will omit the details, but there are many ways in which pharmaceutical companies can utilize a patient-centric perspective within the value chain. The next page, we'll introduce how we are actually utilizing this approach at our company. Daiichi Sankyo has positioned patient centricity as the core of our corporate activities. And as Director Ueno mentioned, has promoted it throughout the value chain. To understand the voices and the needs of patients and work together with them, we collaborate with more than 900 patients advocacy organizations worldwide annually. We also engaged in a variety of activities, such as the PFDD or patient-focused drug development initiative, which incorporates patient feedback into drug development and improved clinical trial information documents and schedules. We are promoting the importance of patient centricity throughout the company through various internal events and training sessions. Director Ueno is also actively promoting it externally, including a speech at the ASCO advocacy summit. I myself have spoken at the DS Academy, which develops the next generation of global leaders and at the global event for World Patient Safety Day, sharing my knowledge of patient centricity with employees from the perspective of both an outside director and a health care professional. At the DS Academy, I was particularly impressed by the way employees from diverse backgrounds share ideas on the theme of patient centricity and engaged in earnest discussions across borders as one global team. Patient centricity is an important company-wide concept that is needed at every position in the value chain, and I believe this was a truly symbolic event that employed that idea. I'm very excited that the next generation of global leaders, such as those participating in the DS Academy, will drive our future growth with a patient-centric mindset. I personally intend to continue to allocate the importance of patient centricity, which I believe will contribute to our company's development and the realization of our purpose. Finally, I have 2 expectations for Daiichi Sankyo going forward. The first is to further advance our purpose of contributing to the enrichment of quality of life around the world by delivering our excellent pharmaceutical products globally. To achieve this, I believe each employee needs both a competitive mindset in the global market and the confidence in their ability to produce excellent pharmaceutical products at the global level. The second is to bring global research, technology and other knowledge back to our company and apply it. We currently have a system in place that allows us to apply the latest medical technologies from overseas, centered around our research institutes in Boston and Munich, and our Smart Research Lab in San Diego. I hope the company will make the most of these capabilities and contribute to the further development of the pharmaceutical industry and the health care as a whole. The patient centricity we discussed today is a common language that transcends global boundaries. I believe that if each and every employee adopts a patient-centric mindset, we can overcome global carriers. I have high hopes that the company will contribute to the 2-way development of health care from Japan to the global stage and from the global stage to Japan.

Next, we will have an explanation from Outside Director Nishii. Before the explanation, let me introduce Nishii's career history. Director Nishii was appointed outside director of our company in June 2023. He joined Ajinomoto Company Incorporated in 1982 and served as Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer of Ajinomoto Frozen Foods Company, Inc. In 2011, he was appointed Executive Officer of Ajinomoto. After that, he served as Director and Senior Management Executive Officer, President of Ajinomoto Brazil. And in 2015, became President and CEO of Ajinomoto. In 2021, he became Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Ajinomoto. Currently, as an important concurrent position, he serves as Outside Director of Kao Corporation. Now Nishii-san, please.

Thank you for the introduction. I am Nishii. Since June of this year, I have been serving as Chair President of the Board. It's been 1 year since I last attended the forum, and I look forward to today. What I will talk about today is, first, the new structure of the Board of Directors, including CEO, Okuzawa, and then about monitoring of management. After that, I will give my views on Daiichi Sankyo's sustainability management from the standpoint of an outside director. First, here is the composition of directors from June 2025 onward. Under the strong leadership of CEO Okuzawa, with the addition of 2 new internal directors and 2 new outside directors, we believe we have formed a Board of Directors that is more diverse, highly specialized and independent than ever before. This new fracture has 2 major features to enhance the effectiveness of the Board of Directors. First, regarding internal directors, Mr. Keller, an American who leads our global oncology business. And Ms. Ueno, especially assigned officer for patient centricity and our first female director from within the company have been appointed. This has made clearer Daiichi Sankyo's identity of aiming to be world-class in the oncology field with strength in science and technology. As for Outside Directors, Mr. Watanabe, Founder and Manager of an M&A advisory firm, and Ms. Kinoshta, Founder and Manager of an investment fund management company have been appointed. We believe this has created a structure that better responds to the trust placed in us by shareholders and investors. While aiming to be world-class in oncology, we also respond to shareholders' trust. At times, we incorporate both perspectives to enhance corporate value. We have strongly emphasized this point in structuring the Board of Directors to enhance its effectiveness. Under CEO Okuzawa's leadership, both the Board of Directors and the Nomination and Compensation Committees are strengthening corporate governance. Especially in the Board of Directors, many discussions are held toward realizing the value creation story and have introduced the main topics of discussion in 2025. First, reports and discussions on medium- to long-term strategy, particularly the next [ sixth ] 5-year business plan. Also from the sustainability perspective, discussions on integrating sustainability into the sixth 5-year business plan, strongly conscious of double materiality, including impact path from nonfinancial to financial. In addition, many initiatives are being taken to enhance the monitoring function of both internal and outside directors in the highly specialized pharmaceutical field. For example, outside directors observed participation in the executive management committee, EMC, and there are many opportunities for information provision and opinion exchange with outside directors regarding the strategic business alliances with AstraZeneca and Merck, lawsuits with former Ranbaxy shareholders, CMO management and response to U.S. tariffs and most favored nation policies. Also reports are made to the Nomination Committee on global management structure and the selection of organizational heads, leading to deliberations in the Board of Directors. In this way, transparency of information is maintained at a high level and trust is preserved between the executive side and outside directors. Also, as governance regarding the CEO system, the Nomination Committee deliberates on the appointment, dismissal, and reappointment of the CEO and reports to the Board of Directors. This is one of our company's unique features. But in September this year, a joint meeting of the Nomination and Compensation Committee was held, and the CEO gave an interim report on the 2025 CEO goals, sharing progress and issues. In March 2026, at this joint meeting the CEO will give an annual report on the CEO goals, and the Compensation Committee will evaluate the CEO's performance. I hear that there are still a few companies that conduct CEO evaluation and the deliberation on appointment, dismissal and reappointment by the Nomination and Compensation Committees. Other company conducts this every year in both committees, and I wanted to share this, that this is a note-worthy point. In addition, toward the sixth 5-year business plan starting in fiscal 2026, discussions are progressing in each committee on the director structure, the executive compensation levels and the nature of long-term incentives. Through these initiatives, the Board of Directors and both committees are jointly monitoring whether the CEO system is being operated appropriately. This slide shows 8 elements that I consider important as indicators for monitoring the management as an outside director participating in Daiichi Sankyo's Board of Directors. Because managing a pharmaceutical company requires high expertise, I believe the points to be monitored by the Board of Directors must be made clear. In particular, from the perspective of growth investment and asset management, whether balanced portfolio management is being achieved is something I want to explain more clearly to shareholders and investors. Our company is currently formulating the next 5-year business plan scheduled to be announced around next spring. In it, we expected to share with shareholders, stakeholders, the cash balance of income, strategic investment and the shareholder returns 5 and 10 years ahead. Next, I will talk about the evaluation of Daiichi Sankyo's sustainability management from the standpoint of an outside director and expectations for the future. So far, our sustainability initiatives have been structured systematically within the company in accordance with ESRS, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, including content goals and processes. The level of disclosure of sustainability-related information is high, and we are evaluated as a company with strong risk resilience. Currently, discussions are underway to integrate sustainability initiatives into the sixth 5-year business plan based on double materiality adjustment. Our company is trying to draw a corporate value enhancement story of growing as a global company in the highly competitive oncology field with patient centricity at the center of corporate culture. Nonfinancial capital such as science and technology, human resources and corporate culture and investments, including DX, to strengthen them are sources renovation. These lead to social value acquisition few contributions to patients and transform society and ultimately to financial value. This is the innovation path we are trying to draw. Currently, discussions are progressing to visualize the connectivity between nonfinancial capital and finance and innovation creation. I expect these discussions to deepen further in the sixth 5-year business plan. As far as room for growth, there are several things I expect from Daiichi Sankyo. First, improvement of employee engagement as an important KPI of that raw materiality. Our company leverages strengths in science and technology, challenging unique and very difficult manufacturing. Supporting this is the energy and high engagement of employees. Enhancing this is very important for creating next innovation. Employee engagement will be monitored as an important KPI, and I hope it will be more actively communicated to society. Also, our company aims to foster culture, where diverse employees can continue to work productively and vibrantly under the unique group corporate culture called One DS culture. I have great respect for -- and highly valued initiatives to foster this One DS culture. But I think it will be good if the group communicated more about how overseas members are working on it and about the state of engagement. Next, patient centricity initiatives, including not only patients, but also their families and partners. As directors Ueno and Komatsu mentioned, patient centricity initiatives not only benefit patients themselves, but also bring positive effects to our company. Especially in oncology, it will increasingly be required to contribute to society by considering not only patients themselves, but also their families and health care professionals. Finally, I hope the company will more actively communicate to society that sensibility initiatives are being promoted together with multi stakeholders across the entire value chain, including health care professionals and partner companies, not just internal stakeholders.

And now we'd like to start Q&A and opinion exchanges. [Operator Instructions]

I am Hashiguchi from Daiwa Securities. I would like to ask the same question to Mr. Okuzawa and Mr. Nishii. Currently, what you are focusing on in discussions are the sixth 5-year business plan and the 2035 vision, as you mentioned. Could you share more about the background and issues behind setting 2035 as the vision standard? When the 2030 vision was set in 2021, it was right after the launch of ENHERTU. It was a time of climbing the mountain, expanding the DXd ADC franchise. This next 5-year business plan period seems to be an extension of that. But 2035 might be the peak of the mountain. And depending on the future initiatives, whether you can climb further or face a cliff, will change. In that sense, is it okay to set the peak as a vision and say you don't know beyond that? What you will do until 2030 and what you will do with your view towards 2035 may not differ much. So regarding the need to look beyond the end of [ ENHERTU's ] life cycle, that current awareness of issues, and what must be done in the next 5 years. Why was 2035 set as a vision standard? I would like to hear from Mr. Okuzawa's standpoint and also from Mr. Nishii's standpoint. What is your view on this, please?

Let me answer first. I am Okuzawa. I feel your question already contains the answer. Probably everyone is wondering what will happen between 2030 and 2035 And we also imagine that people are naturally conscious of ENHERTU's LOE. So just saying until 2030 is not enough, extending to 2035 allows us to talk about what measures we are taking for what will happen in that period. That was a strong motivation. When making a 5-year business plan, we usually look about 10 years ahead, that often coincides with the flagship product reaching LOE, and we consider how to overcome that. So it has been a suitable time frame. This time, we are particularly discussing measures after ENHERTU.

May I? I am not an expert in pharmaceutical, especially drug discovery, so my answer may be rough on those milestones. But I think Daiichi Sankyo, having obtained ENHERTU, is rapidly combining in oncology with alliances with AZ and Merck. In Board discussions, personally, I hope the company will also do things on its own. Currently, development milestones are achieved within alliances. But for the next growth, I think there is a potential to do it independently. I hope this will be incorporated into the vision, and that in the sixth 5-year business plan, investments and preparations for the future will be included. There are many things to do. Their results will be pursued by 2035, having fruits harvested in 2035. At this stage, I expect the context of being a global top-class oncology company will become sharper. That is my expectation. Thank you very much.

I am Koguchi, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. First, I'd like to ask a question to Ms. Ueno regarding the patient centricity. If you ask other pharmaceutical companies, they say similar things, patients first and so on. For pharma, it is obvious, employees may superficially understand, and I think we get it. But for each person, to truly think deeply and reach deep understanding is not easy. How do you make efforts to deepen it 1 or 2 steps further? Also, domestically and overseas, the thinking may differ. To connect to One DS culture, how do you unify globally? For example, in the U.S. where contribution to revenue is high, or in Europe where sustainability awareness is high, and in Japan, how do you unify and approach this? Could you explain more, including how it connects to corporate value enhancement?

Thank you for your question. Regarding the patient centricity and how each employee can truly take it personally, I think that is a question. Our company's patient centricity has both top-down communication and bottom-up culture. Employees already have a culture of wanting to value patients and thinking carefully about what they can do for patients. Having both bottom up and top down is our strength. Although this [ soul ] already exists, we want to further promote and deepen it. Specifically, as I mentioned today, we add patient centricity sessions to various trainings in each function and region. I myself have visited many functions and regions, communicating the concept of patient centricity, encouraging each area to raise its patient centricity mindset and to incorporate it into their actual work, leading to concrete contributions. Currently, in the Japan business unit, I am in charge of, for example, in sales sections and medical affairs, employees voluntarily hold workshops, thinking about patient centricity in their open context, discussing this is my patient centricity, what do you think, how about this activity. This is not just formality, but employees truly committing, advancing the patient centricity mindset and incorporating it into their work. Another point regarding how to advance this globally, as you said, patients' perspectives differ by region due to cultural differences. Each department also has different ways of contributing and perceiving patients. So a short phrase may not fit perfectly. Currently, I convey patient centricity, as always, placing patients at the center of our hearts and acting accordingly. In Europe and the U.S., patients voices are incorporated in the regulatory framework, into reimbursement and approval processes. So activities are somewhat ahead compared to Japan. That should be advanced further. In Japan and ASCA, patient collaboration has not progressed much in that regard, so we will advance it. Globally, we are starting initiatives such as patient forums, mainly in medical affairs, to promote collaboration and partnership with patients under the same concept. Does that answer your question?

I understand. Especially regarding overseas, if you could disclose more specific examples in the future, it would help our understanding, please. My second point, regarding the Board of Directors, your company has, for the first time, appointed an internal female director, Ms. Ueno, and also a foreign national Director as well as several new outside directors. It seems that transformation is progressing considerably. So I'd like to ask the Chair, how has it changed, and what further changes do you expect? And another point, this is for either Mr. Okuzawa or Ms. Ueno. It is very pleasing that Ms. Ueno has become a director. But I am a little concerned about whether the next female leaders are being properly developed in the areas we are familiar with. For example, the head of sustainability has been female for 2 consecutive generations. But how is it across the whole company? If Mr. Okuzawa could explain this, it would be helpful.

Thank you. As I mentioned earlier, continue to grow with oncology as a core and with patient centricity as a nucleus. The new internal directors symbolize this. Especially the oncology business is, needless to say, a global business. Within pharmaceuticals, it is recognized as the field with the greatest growth expectations and the fiercest competition. Having Ken Keller directly join the Board of Directors is very significant. Since June, his global leadership has already been strongly demonstrated, particularly in matters such as U.S. tariffs, IMF issues and in driving growth in various next steps. This leadership is being exercised directly under the Board of Directors, and we can evaluate and have discussions within the context. This is very significant. Furthermore, as I answered to Mr. Hashiguchi earlier, I hope this will continue to be fully exercised. As for the 2 new outside directors who joined, their careers were introduced earlier. In the sixth 5-year business plan, Daiichi Sankyo must further strengthen perspectives, especially including the business alliances. We have engaged in alliances so far. But to further raise corporate value, activities to further enhance terminal value are essential. At the same time, we must not neglect performance and numerical targets within the 5-year business plan. The 2 new directors each have distinctive career backgrounds, and I feel discussions are deepening considerably in these respects. That's all.

Regarding the female leaders, fortunately, our female leader pipeline has become substantial as in our research labs. As you know, we have one female director and one full-time auditor and 3 executive officers. In Japan, about 120 people serve as people managers. These managers have long maintained voluntary information exchange and awareness mechanism called the [ SWAN ] association. Ms. Ueno has long served as its leader. Now those 120 people who have grown under it are in a situation of the following after Ueno. Furthermore, in DS academy, among the first class of 30 participants, about 1/3 are women. This includes both Japanese and overseas members. Regardless of nationality, these 30 people are potential future EMC members. Some are already EMC members or directors. So in practical and concrete terms, the female leader pipeline is substantial. I report this today. Thank you.

I am [ Natsunami ] from [indiscernible] Asset. I would like to ask about Mr. Okuzawa's explanation. Thank you for presenting the metrics of innovation creation and value enhancement for investment in people. It was very easy to understand. I expect that in the future, you will show concretely with KPIs, how human capital leads to corporate value enhancement. In that regard, how far have you progressed so far? Looking at the integrated report, in the engagement survey, expectations for growth have improved greatly, while corporate culture has slightly declined. Perhaps you have provided many opportunities so far. But going forward, in fostering a culture that generates innovation is some additional mechanism or guideline needed. What do you see as current organizational issues in building an organization that generates innovation? In the next 5-year business plan, how do you intend to foster culture and make the organization one that continuously generates innovation? Could you give us some hints?

In the 5 years of the current business plan, we have overwhelmingly allocated cash flow to R&D investment and CapEx as priorities 1 and 2. We discussed comprehensively strengthening S&T. In work places that generate S&T, employees have growth opportunities right before them. I believe employees have been able to utilize these opportunities to contribute to the company, benefit the patients and raise their own value over these 5 years. As a result, more people worldwide want to join that Daiichi Sankyo. I think this has been one of the achievements of these 5 years. This is directly connected to innovation creation. Looking back now, I think it is not an exaggeration. As for future issues, in each unit of value chain and organization, research institutes, global clinical development, manufacturing departments in technology, formulation research departments, innovation creation and talent development are progressing. Going forward, we must strengthen collaboration among them. Looking at Daiichi Sankyo's overall direction as a team, in our core behaviors, we emphasize, collaborate and trust. We want to shift our activities toward this keyword so that through collaboration we can generate even greater innovation. For example, just last week, in the Japan business unit led by Ueno, there was some [ MA ] forum. In this MA forum, domestic sales and marketing, safety information management and medical affairs, 3 functions all gathered. They set IoT management as a common theme and discussed from each standpoint, how to strengthen it further. IoT management is a theme that Daiichi Sankyo, working with DXd ADC must focus on most. In this cross-functional workshop, participants passionately discussed what could be done from each standpoint. I listened from the beginning and felt very encouraged about the future of this collaboration. Doing this at a global level is my current challenge and direction.

So the measure of whether this is being achieved will be the engagement score, correct?

Yes. For all 3 core behaviors, the engagement survey has questions linked to each item. By looking closely, we can analyze.

I am Yamaguchi from Citigroup. First, I'd like to ask Outside Director Komatsu a question. I believe that developing clinical trial plans that reflect patient feedback is directly linked to the competitiveness of products. Regardless of whether you can provide specific examples, I'd like to know whether this actually speeds up or slows down the process? Also, digital technology has been making inroads in this area recently. Could you tell us more specifically about your company's efforts in this area, if there are any? That's my first question.

As you pointed out, patient centricity doesn't just mean working for the patient, but also from the patient to us or co-creation with the patient. And I think the most typical example of this is in relation to clinical trials. At our company, we have established a specialized dedicated team in our development department that reflects this patient-centric, patient perspective in drug development. This team enables appropriate communication with patients and on-site clinical trial coordinators. And as a specific example, we use this information in the review of clinical trial protocols and informed consent documents. As for actual effectiveness of this approach, and this is an overseas example, but in the entire process of clinical trials and drug development, patient recruitment and registration are set to be the biggest bottleneck. And research designs that incorporate the patient's perspective have been used in overseas examples. And there have been reports that study, plan, and that reflect patients' voices, easy to understand the explanatory documents and can increase the clinical trial enrollment rate and reduce delays.

What about digital transformation? Are you using digital technology?

Regarding digital, for example, when it comes to informed consent documents, rather than just having a doctor or a clinical trial coordinator explain the details, I think there are ways to use digital, such as creating easy-to-understand materials. How exactly are we using them? May I ask Ueno-san.

Yes, may I explain a bit more. As Dr. Komatsu just mentioned, there are, of course, efforts to use digital instead of paper informed consent documents. For example, for patients, -- and I think this is something that's progressing, not just at our company but across the industry. We can use patient-reported outcome where patients record their symptoms and other information, and we receive that data electronically. And it's also timely as the patient recalls those symptoms on the spot and it's time stamped so we know when and where they were made. And that data can then be sent to the medical institution beforehand. And by sending it, I mean an integrated record, which allows medical institutions staff to reach out to the patient earlier and detect side effects early. This is one example of how patient reported outcome can be used.

May I ask one more question? Next, I'd like to ask Ueno-san. Speaking of patient centricity, your company is currently working on anticancer drugs in particular, and I understand that you've made a lot of changes in dosage forms, from IV to SC and in some cases, oral. I imagine that patient responses will change depending on the timing of administration and whether the drug works well with other medication. Is this approach also based on that?

For example, the development of new dosage forms, dosage or treatment sequences? Is that what you're asking? Of course, we develop drugs with the belief that they will contribute to patient outcomes and their lives.

Well, of course, I believe so. But I was wondering if there's any part of it that stems from that kind of thinking. I wanted to know whether your company has an aspect of doing something because SC is more popular or because it will extend the patent, but rather because it's good for patients.

Yes, that's exactly what we do.

My name is [ Kodaira ] from BlackRock. I have a question for CEO, Okuzawa-san. I'd like to ask about double materiality which Director Nishii mentioned earlier. When communicating with your employees, what is the difference between single materiality and double materiality? What is the significance of your company's double materiality? And also, how do you create social value without sacrificing economic value? What kind of efforts do you make in communicating with employees about these questions? And also, what kind of response have you received from employees?

I myself spoke about the concept of Sanpo Yoshi today. And as a manager of the company, I communicate this basic management philosophy whenever I have the opportunity to do so. And this is not something I am doing alone. Every year, EMC or the senior management team takes the results of an employee survey and sets out areas of challenge and concerns. And from April onwards, we begin implementing initiatives that identify this year's theme. And as you can see, management places great importance on things that have a direct impact on employees, such as the motivation and mindset of each employee, and these are the pillars of our activities in various places. And this is what we have established during this current 5-year business plan. And I think One DS culture has really taken root over the past 5 years. We now have bases in 32 countries, and I feel like it has really taken hold. I'm currently traveling to various places to visit all of them. And I think I will be able to visit all of them by the end of this fiscal year. And whenever I visit different places, I always ask employees, why did you join Daiichi Sankyo? One thing I expect is that they'll say how great Daiichi Sankyo's science is and how great the products in its pipeline are. But it's not just that. There are always employees who say things like, because I like Daiichi Sankyo's culture. The management and everyone else certainly talk about things like One DS culture and core behaviors. But when I ask them, what it is they really like about the company, and they say exactly that. Compared to the workplaces they have worked at in the past, where most of the people who come to our overseas spaces are from western megapharma, and they say, Daiichi Sankyo overwhelmingly talks about something like that every day. Of course, there are products and marketing strategies, budgets, market share, the pipelines and et cetera, that we also talk about. These are things that people talk about on a daily basis in a normal company, I guess. But you hear them, from management, but it's not just that. They also need to understand what we value in a way that reaches employees' hearts. For example, words like people, respect, trust and the culture are commonly used on a daily basis at our company, which makes it completely different from any other company they have worked for before. I am very happy to hear, I like a Daiichi Sankyo's culture, in that sense. And I feel that even without using the term double materiality, this has essentially taken route. And this may be a bit biased, but that's the feeling I get.

I am Sogi from Sanford C. Bernstein. This is for Mr. Okuzawa. As your company grows rapidly as a global corporation, I believe it is extremely important to globalize your human resources. From what I've heard so far, you have bases in 32 countries. So I think you are making great strides in globalizing your workforce. Looking at your presentation so far, I've noticed that you are rapidly recruiting global talent from other companies, especially in the development and commercial fields. But what about globalizing your research talent is particularly important as it's the source of innovation. To what extent has globalization of your research talent progressed, particularly in drug discovery? And in what direction do you see it moving forward? Also, regarding globalizing your workforce, currently, most of your management, both internally and externally, is Japanese. With only Ken Keller as your sole non-Japanese. Do you have any plans to change this current structure in order to continue competing as a global company? And finally, as you increase your global talent pool, you're a Japanese company, and looking at other companies, I imagine global operations present significant challenges. How have you overcome these challenges so far? Compared to what are often considered fully global companies, to what extent have you globalized your internal operations? Of course, I understand that this is the case since clinical trials are conducted globally, but please tell us what level the actual employees have reached in terms of working seamlessly globally?

Thank you for your question. Regarding the first point about global talent, you asked about research. There is no question that our Shinagawa R&D center is currently the largest base for discovery research. And we are looking forward to the completion of our new research building currently under construction. In 2 years, it will be completed. With these investments, I believe that Shinagawa in Tokyo will continue to be the base for discovery research with many Japanese scientists active there. At the same time, we are currently working with research institutes in Germany and the United States, which are part of a scientific ecosystem comprised of local academic institutions, start-up companies and various research institutes. Our researchers in Shinagawa and [ Kasai ] are exploring the of research collaboration there. In other words, rather than simply leaving it to business development and expecting them to fetch something, our researchers and scientists are actively seeking out things that will strengthen our discovery research strategy. We are currently developing such bases in the United States and Germany. In the midst of all this, we are actually launching another smart lab in San Diego. It currently has about 40 employees, I think. And most of these people from the United States. And the head of the lab came to Shinagawa just this week to give a presentation on the progress of lab smartification. It's a very ambitious and exciting new lab that combines AI and robotics, resulting in highly efficient solutions. And 2 years from now, the know-how and the systems developed there will be transferred to a new research building in Shinagawa. And this is also something we are currently working on. And once this system is complete, we'll be able to conduct discovery research from both Shinagawa and San Diego on the same platform. I feel like that day is fast approaching. And secondly, what is the management structure, you asked? We've added Ken Keller to our internal Board, which has greatly diversified our discussions and provided a great deal of inspiration. And our executive management committee, which serves as a talent pool similar to that of an internal Board of Directors, is comprised of approximately 20 senior management members, including several foreign leaders. Furthermore, we have DS Academy members waiting to be appointed. Our pipeline of non-Japanese leaders is steadily growing that way, and we believe we can further increase diversity in terms of nationality at the director level. And now regarding the challenge of global operations, this is truly an ongoing challenge. With Japan, the United States and Europe as well as Asian countries such as China, and Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, we have a significant diversity of countries that we need to cover. Within this framework, we are running a global team through each value chain function, and we are currently making step-by-step improvements through trial and error. Our observation is that our global operations have undoubtedly evolved since we were able to work remotely. However, as we have continued to do this, we've also come to realize that it's also important to properly incorporate face-to-face opportunities to further strengthen our global remote work model. Right now, we do this somewhere, not just Tokyo, but Munich or New Jersey and et cetera, and meet face-to-face several times a year to work together, including for team building. Then we split off and continue working remotely from our respective locations. We've also been able to establish a global HR system common to the group. So employees can seamlessly integrate global employment arrangements, no matter which country they join. For example, in Switzerland, we've established a system where a global QA leadership can be exercised as a Daiichi Sankyo Swiss employee, and we've made significant progress in improving our operations over the past 5 years. And we'd like to further evolve this.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

This is [ Sawada ] from JPMorgan Asset Management. I have 2 questions, mainly for Okuzawa-san. One is something that was mentioned briefly in this year's integrated report. I believe you disclosed occupational health and safety indicators in the context of creating a safe and secure workplace environment. Looking at the past 3 years, it doesn't seem like there's been much improvement in this area. And last year, there was that incident involving [ Agatsuma-san ]. And I think that with your company's rapid expansion of business, various stress levels are constantly rising for executives and those in similar positions. How do you overcome this and what kind of health management will the company implement to address this issue? Of course, patient centricity is a very important concept, but I think employee centricity is even more important. So could you please answer this question first?

Thank you, [ Sawada-san ], for that question. We appreciate your concern for our own health. You are absolutely right. I believe all employees are under a great deal of stress, in a positive sense, I believe. However, even so, all employees and management have truly ambitious goals, and we have 20,000 people working every day. And the company's management is urging employees not to forget about health management, and the HR department is also making every effort to communicate the importance of health management. And as I mentioned earlier, about global work styles and global operations, each value chain, corporate function, that is, and team is also developing its own rules and practices to achieve work-life balance. And similar efforts are being made at the corporate level in each country. And in that sense, I believe remote work can be effectively used to reduce the physical and mental burden. However, of course, I cannot leave it up to each employee. If I myself, I'm not healthy, it will be the greatest risk to our company. Therefore, I will keep this in mind and continue to work hard to maintain my physical and mental health.

If possible, I think it will be necessary for the Board of Directors to have some kind of system in place to constantly monitor Okuzawa-san and internal directors and senior managements' health. I hope you will continue to discuss this issue. And just one more point. As I mentioned earlier, regarding the engagement survey, at this meeting last year, you disclosed that there was a gap between benchmarks and learning from the failures from some collaborations. And while there has been some improvement in this area, this time around, the overall figures have still dropped. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

Thank you for that question. I believe we have been working on learning from failure for several years by now. But as you pointed out, when we look at these figures, it's true that we feel a little short of our expectations. For example, when it comes to learning from failure, we could use the development of edoxaban as an example. We actually interviewed many employees involved in this project of edoxaban, some of whom may have been former employees, and asked then what we should have done and where we have made mistakes. So this year, we have been working on a series of initiatives to learn from our own product development. This is something I'm very ambitious about. And because it's our own case, I think it's helped communicate to various employees that we are serious about learning from our failure and that we may have had opportunities to make something like edoxaban even bigger. Furthermore, in terms of our research culture, we've adopted the term learning from success and failure. Adding it to the 3 words that represent our company's positive research culture, along with scientific freedom and craft [ personship ]. By including success and failure, we hope to encourage individual researchers and scientists to adapt these terms without feeling pressured. This is something we are working on. And I believe it's something we need to continue doing in the future on an ongoing basis. I hope to firmly establish learning from failure and learning from success as a core part of Daiichi Sankyo's positive culture.

Now we have reached the scheduled end time. So we will now conclude the Daiichi-Sankyo Sustainability Meeting. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]