October 5, 2023
On September 21, 2023, Eisai’s CEO Haruo Naito participated in the G7 Health Follow-up Side Event held along with the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting in New York, the United States, and gave a speech to introduce Eisai’s initiatives for impact quantification and expressed expectations for impact investment. The event, “Toward More Resilient, Equitable, and Sustainable Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030 － Equitable Access to Medical Countermeasures (MCMs) and Impact Investment Initiative (Triple I) for Global Health －”, was co-organized by the Japan Society, a not-for-profit organization, and the Government of Japan. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Mr. Keizo Takemi, Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Mr. Ken Shibusawa, Triple I Co-Chair, attended the event.
During the High-Level Forum, Prime Minister Kishida announced the launch of “Triple I for Global Health”, an impact investment initiative, which was endorsed at the Hiroshima Summit to accelerate mobilization of private financial resources through impact investing and called for further participation in the Triple I initiative by companies and organizations in each country. In his speech, Mr. Kishida introduced Eisai as a company working on impact accounting in global health. (Please click here to read the opening remarks by Prime Minister Kishida).
In the Triple I session, in addition to speakers from various sectors including governments, investors and financiers, Eisai’s CEO Naito participated in as the representative of private companies. He touched on the significance of companies working together with the public sector to address social issues, as well as the Kishida administration's “New Form of Capitalism”, which calls for using impact (actions to address social challenges) as a new corporate value indicator in addition to conventional risk and return, and highlighted Eisai’s efforts for achieving social good effectively. CEO Naito introduced Eisai’s efforts for impact quantification such as 1. impact accounting of free provision of treatment for lymphatic filariasis; 2. social value to be brought by a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease. He also expressed his thought that impacts should be included in evaluation methods for measuring company’s performance.
