Eisai is a company with a nomination committee, etc. system, whereby the Board of Directors entrust a large portion of the decision-making authority over business execution to the corporate officers in order to devote its attention to the oversight of management, while the corporate officers strive for prompt, flexible decision making and business execution.
Under the clear separation of the oversight of management and the execution of business, the Company has established several meeting bodies, including the Company-Wide Environment and Safety Committee and the Human Rights Awareness Committee, which deal with themes related to environmental and social sustainability in operational divisions. Issues concerning the management of the Company related to improving its long-term corporate value (ESG issues), such as environmental and social sustainability and corporate governance, are considered by a committee chaired by the corporate officer responsible for the topics concerned. Any higher level decisions are referred to the Executive Committee, which reports to the Board of Directors (the Board) in accordance with each corporate officer’s obligations on timely and appropriate reporting to the Board.
In addition, the Company has established the “Sustainability Department” dedicated to sustainability (Sustainability Department), whose mission is to work toward the realization of a sustainable society and the long-term enhancement of corporate value, and has put in place a system to oversee the individual ESG issues addressed by each department and the various external environments surrounding the Company, that thus enables the entire company to work together to promote initiatives. The Sustainability Department is also responsible for developing and implementing initiatives related to improving Eisai’s access to medicines, which the Company positions as an important contribution to sustainability.
The Company has also established the “Sustainability Advisory Board” comprised of external experts as an advisory council body to the CEO. The Sustainability Advisory Board has its origins in the Access to Medicines Advisory Board, which had been meeting since 2011 with the aim of further strengthening Eisai’s access to medicines, and is now held for the purpose of obtaining highly qualified advice on a variety of sustainability-related issues, including access to medicines.