[Tenant Company Interview (Gran Green Osaka)] Shionogi & Co., Ltd.

Shionogi & Co., Ltd. has been based in Doshomachi, Osaka, known as the city of medicine, for over 140 years. The pharmaceutical company, Shionogi & Co., Ltd., which has grown alongside the development of Osaka, has announced that it will relocate its headquarters to Gran Green Osaka after the summer of 2025. As pharmaceutical development becomes more competitive internationally, the company is about to embark on a new challenge at its new headquarters under the slogan "From Osaka to the World." We spoke with Teshirogi Isao, Chairman, President and CEO, about the future that Shionogi envisions.

Founded: 1878
Number of employees: 2,117 (non-consolidated) 4,959 (consolidated) (as of March 31, 2024)
New head office location: 5-54 Ofukacho, Kita-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture Gran Green Osaka Park Tower 24th to 26th floors
Business description: Based on the basic policy of "always providing the best medicines necessary to protect people's health," the company is engaged in research, development, manufacturing and sales of prescription pharmaceuticals as well as OTC drugs and diagnostic agents, in order to continually create innovative healthcare products and services that more comprehensively resolve the problems faced by patients and society around the world.

Isao Teshirogi, Chairman, President and CEO

Shionogi & Co., Ltd.'s roots date back to the Meiji era. It was founded as a wholesaler of traditional Japanese medicines, and has since developed into a business alongside Doshomachi. President Teshirogi looks back on the company's history as it develops into the research and development-based pharmaceutical company it is today:

"Shionogi & Co., Ltd. was founded in 1878 as a drug wholesaler called Shiono Gisaburo Shoten in Doshomachi (current Chuo-ku, Osaka City). When the company was first established, it sold Japanese and Chinese medicines and imported and sold Western medicines, but after the end of the war in 1945, the company shifted its focus to pharmaceuticals, developing, manufacturing, and distributing medicines."

In its pharmaceutical business, the company has focused for many years on infectious disease treatment drugs.

"I feel that the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased public interest in infectious diseases. Our company has been developing drugs for infectious diseases for over 60 years, and if we count from the time of importing and selling them, we have been involved in infectious disease treatment drugs for over 100 years. When it comes to infectious disease treatment drugs, I believe that Shionogi is highly regarded not only in Japan but also around the world. We are accelerating our global expansion, particularly through our anti-HIV drugs, mainly in Europe and the United States."

In June 2020, the company formulated a new medium-term management plan, "Shionogi Transformation Strategy 2030 (STS2030)," which sets out "creating the future of healthcare with a new platform" as the vision it wants to achieve by 2030. He spoke about the significance of this as follows:

"As a pharmaceutical company, we have developed our business with a focus on medicine, researching, developing, manufacturing and selling drugs. However, from the patient's perspective, the ultimate goal is not 'medicine' but the patient's 'health.' We aim to provide healthcare solutions that meet patient needs, not just medicine, but diagnosis, prevention, health promotion and other areas. In areas that are difficult for us to address alone, we partner with external companies to co-create solutions that improve healthcare issues overall. We have set this goal with the hope of building a platform that can provide comprehensive solutions and achieving happiness not only for patients, but for society as a whole."

Shionogi & Co., Ltd. aims to evolve from a "drug discovery-based pharmaceutical company" that mainly provides prescription drugs to a "HaaS (Healthcare as a Service) company" that provides healthcare services. As part of this, the company will move its headquarters to Gran Green Osaka, aiming to complete the relocation after the summer of 2025. President Teshirogi explains the background to this relocation as follows:

"Japan is entering a period of population decline, and the birthrate is falling and the population is aging. This is a common problem not only for Japan but for other developed countries. In other words, Japan is the first country in the world to experience the problem of a declining birthrate and aging population. Developed countries are watching closely to see how Japan will solve this problem. In addition to the population decline, Japan's financial situation is also not good, so the SHIONOGI Group must also steer toward further globalization. Doshomachi is the place where we were founded and the source of our spirit. However, at our current headquarters, it is difficult to consolidate the personnel of the development and IT departments, which are scattered around the area, and there were also issues with the business continuity plan (BCP) function. Therefore, although it was a difficult decision, we decided that it was important to have a headquarters function that can respond to the times, with an eye to a future of global expansion, in order to continue developing for the next 150 to 200 years."

He continues that from the perspective of creating innovation, the existence of "JAM BASE," a core functional facility that brings together various universities, companies, and research institutes, was also a major reason for the relocation.

"In order to continually create innovative healthcare products and services, it is necessary to have contact with a variety of people and generate innovation. JAM BASE is a facility where diverse players, from universities to companies of various Floors, come together to shape new ideas and support the challenge of social implementation and realization. It was very attractive to us that there is a base where we can deepen our collaboration with such people and continue to develop innovative medicines."

The core facility "JAM BASE" has a four-story atrium called "Syn-SALON" (fourth floor)

Shionogi & Co., Ltd. will relocate its base to Gran Green Osaka and further deepen its ties with industry, government and academia. The new office will be positioned as the company's global headquarters, and the company aims to create a symbolic office space that will serve as a hub for Shionogi employees not only in Japan but all over the world.

"We aim to create a 'viking' (a portmanteau of working and hiking) office for our new office, and to adopt an open space that blends in with the lush greenery of Grand Green Osaka. As we are in the pharmaceutical industry, our work is diverse, including research and development, supply chains, and domestic operations. When value chains are different, there is a tendency for communication barriers to form between departments, but we are aiming to remove these barriers both physically and psychologically, and create a space that is open in every sense of the word. We hope that this office will be a place where many employees can communicate and have lively discussions across value chains."