¾«¶«Ó°Òµ

¾«¶«Ó°Òµ. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President & CEO: Haruo Naito, “Eisai”) announced today that it has appointed Mr. Ye Liu (currently Head of Pharmaceuticals Affairs Division) to serve as the first locally-hired president at its Chinese subsidiary ¾«¶«Ó°ÒµChina Inc., effective April 1. ¾«¶«Ó°Òµhas defined East Asia as one of the regions that will lead the Company in its future global business expansion efforts, and on April 1, will establish the ¾«¶«Ó°ÒµEast Asia Region which will encompass operations in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. With Japan and China both set to drive growth in the region, ¾«¶«Ó°Òµdecided to appoint a locally-hired president at ¾«¶«Ó°ÒµChina with the expectation that they will exercise strong leadership in driving future growth. As a result of this appointment, all of Eisai's major overseas subsidiaries are now headed by locally-hired presidents.

¾«¶«Ó°Òµplans to transform its China business by moving away from a business model that up until now has relied on a massive field force to one that takes a focused approach adaptive to regional and product characteristics. More specifically, the Company seeks to create a new business model that is centered around the establishment of specialized business units in its focused therapeutic areas of oncology, liver disease, and central nervous system disease.

Under the newly established ¾«¶«Ó°ÒµEast Asia Region framework, ¾«¶«Ó°Òµaims to promote growth of its China business by leveraging the synergy that results from the sharing of knowledge between employees across the region. The company will also continue to make further contributions to patients in China in accordance with its corporate human health care (hhc) mission.

Effective April 1, Mr. Yukio Akada (Senior Vice President, ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ.), current president of ¾«¶«Ó°ÒµChina, will assume the role of chairman.