August, 2014
Since 2009, researchers and staff of the Eisai Group have been visiting hospitals to run the “Traveling Experiment Classroom” program for pediatric patients.
At the Traveling Experiment Classroom, Eisai staff and children conduct simple science experiments together in clinical training classrooms borrowed from the hospitals.
For these children who do not have the chance to go to school, it is often their first time to experience these kinds of experiments, and we could see their eyes sparkle while they tried to make batteries using charcoal as well as tablets that release carbon dioxide when dropped into water. Occasionally, we receive letters of gratitude from the children afterward which gives our staff more energy to put into their work.
Before and after the experiments, we often ask pediatric patients and their families about their impressions of the medicine they take and how easy it is to use, and we hear various opinions on issues such as the flavor of the syrup formulation and the size of the tablets. Eisai and Elmed Eisai (our subsidiary company that makes generic drugs) researchers, working toward making medicines easier to take for children, are able to directly listen to these opinions and use this feedback to further stimulate progress in their work.
Eisai will continue to actively create opportunities to hear opinions from various patients, and seek to improve the ease of use and practicality of medicines in order to realize further contributions to patients.
