Aiming for Medicine That I'd be Glad to Take Myself

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February, 2009

Eisai Group employees incorporate the corporate philosophy into their work.
We asked our employees to talk about the hhc they envision, how it impacts their work at Eisai, and about how they put it into practice.

Yu Yoshida
Chemistry Group, Discovery Research Laboratories I

1. What is your specific responsibility at work?

I'm engaged in exploratory synthetic research in the field of neurology.
Exploratory synthesis is the initial stage of research and development in the synthesis and design of new drugs that are discovered by Eisai.
Here, we're aiming to develop new drugs that are more effective but have a lower risk of side effects.

2. What is your motto or belief in your daily operation?

There is one thing I always try to do when I work. I try to consider whether or not the drug I'm working on is one I would want to take myself, or that I would need, if I were in the same situation as a patient, or his or her family. Not only does that give me a clear idea of the drugs I should be aiming for, but I feel that it also cultivates the desire to create drugs that will satisfy the patient, not just fulfill a work assignment.

3. When do you feel that you are realizing hhc through work?

The work that we can do in basic research is to create drugs. I think I'm able to get a deep sense of hhc when we have created a new drug that satisfies unmet medical needs, or when we have succeeded in relieving the suffering of a patient, even a little bit.

4. How are you going to address your operation to realize hhc?

We must always keep the mission of providing better drugs to patients, and of providing them more quickly, foremost in mind, and understand what patients and their families want. I don't have the opportunity to visit medical sites directly during the course of my daily work, but I always try to think of what I can do in that work for patients and their families, keeping in mind that such daily work is a step toward the achievement of hhc.

(The above is a revised version of an article originally published in Environmental and Social Report 2008.)