Aiming to Be a Trusted Medical Partner

In Japan, Medical Representatives (MRs) play a role in providing, gathering, and disseminating information on our pharmaceuticals to healthcare professionals including doctors and pharmacists.
We handle a wide range of drugs for the treatment of diseases including cardiovascular diseases such as thrombosis and embolism; lifestyle-related diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus ; central nervous system diseases such as migraine and epilepsy; pain; and cancer . With a well-developed training system, we try to acquire not only information on our own pharmaceuticals, but also a range of knowledge about diseases and pathological conditions. From professional information on the safety and efficacy of drugs that is useful for healthcare professionals who treat patients with various diseases, to information that helps appropriate patients who take our medicines lead healthy and fulfilling lives with their families, we commit ourselves to communicating information that meets the wide-ranging needs of healthcare professionals in an accurate, prompt and thorough manner.
In addition, we are committed to dissemination of information about our products in a compliance manner. This is done through a compliance system that includes training, review of materials and information, etc.
As a result of this ongoing effort, in a survey conducted on healthcare professionals by third-party research firms aimed at continual improvements in such MR activities, Daiichi Sankyo was ranked No. 1 in an overall assessment of MR activities in Japan in both, the entire market and the hospital and private-practice market categories in fiscal year 2021 as well.
We aim to be a trusted medical partner through providing tailored information to all healthcare professionals and their patients, with compassion for each and every one of them.

Assessment by Questionnaire in Japan
Overall assessment of MRs FY2021
Entire markets (all responding physicians) No. 1
(N=4,267)
Hospital market (hospital physicians) No. 1
(N=2,500)
Private practice market (private practice physicians) No. 1
(N=1,767)

Conducted by INTAGE Healthcare Inc. (FY2021)

※ The surveys have been conducted by the same company since 2016 although the company has changed its name from ANTERIO Inc.

Aiming for Safe and Secure Medication among Patients

With the aim of contributing to a society where patients with osteoporosis can live without becoming bedridden by improving the rate of continued treatment for osteoporosis, which is considered to exhibit a relatively low rate of continued treatment due to lack of obvious symptoms, we support continued treatment by providing a “card and sticker notifying the time of dosing” and “support pocketbook” and creating a registration system for notifying the next scheduled date of dosing via mail or e-mail. The number of patients registered with the system is approximately 150,000 and with the rate of continued treatment reaching approximately 90% for 12-month treatments and approximately 80% for 18-month treatments, this system has been helping many patients to continue to receive osteoporosis treatment.
For patients who need to take inhalants, we provide a special whistle to medical institutions to check the strength needed to inhale the medicine. This is aimed at supporting healthcare professionals with patient compliance instructions and mitigating the fear of taking medicine among patients. The whistle is well received especially by parents with small children in creating a sense of security.
In addition, in order to prevent medication errors and improve the identifiability of medicine among patients, we provide formulations with names in katakana on both sides and also oral dispersing (OD) tablets that melt quickly without water.
We will strive to contribute to providing support for safety and security to patients taking medicine by enhancing a support system for patients to receive treatment with a sense of security and devising formulation, labeling and packaging schemes.

Provision of High-quality Information to Healthcare Professionals

Given that pharmaceuticals by nature inevitably have both benefits and risks that must be carefully balanced, it is important for pharmaceutical companies to generate high-quality information on the pharmaceuticals’ efficacy and safety, and to provide the information to the medical community in order to promote their proper use. In particular, in the early phase after the launch of a new drug, there may be less information available to meet various needs in the medical practice, even though the efficacy and safety of the drug was confirmed in the development phase. Through cooperation among relevant units, the Daiichi Sankyo Group generates information through identifying necessary and helpful information from professional viewpoints and conducting post-marketing surveillance*2 with cooperation from healthcare professionals. We aim to contribute to medical treatment and promote proper use by sharing this information on a timely basis with healthcare professionals through medical journals, conference presentations, and proper use materials.
We continually ensure compliance with relevant laws, regulations and guidelines, as well as ethical and scientific principles, when conducting post-marketing surveillance. We also strive to ensure transparency and manage conflicts of interest by working with impartial third-party medical institutions.

*2 A surveillance run by pharmaceutical companies for their products on day-to-day investigation through contracts with medical institutions based on the ministerial ordinance on GPSP (Good Post-Marketing Study Practice)

Collection of Information from Healthcare Professionals and its Feedback

We collect more than 30,000 cases reports annually from healthcare professionals in Japan on the safety of marketed and investigational drugs, including adverse drug reactions, and approximately 80,000 cases reports annually when information from overseas partners is included (number based on FY2020 results ). The Safety and Risk Management Department enters the information into the company’s global safety database management system to evaluate it and promptly send reports on findings to the regulatory authorities based on regulatory requirements. Furthermore, once the safety information is analyzed globally, the latest findings are provided as feedback to healthcare professionals.

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Response to Inquiries from Patients and Healthcare Professionals

The Medical Information Center in Japan receives approximately 6,000 inquiries per month from healthcare professionals and patients, or approximately 70,000 inquiries per year, regarding our pharmaceutical products. We are committed to responding to inquiries in a sincere manner that upholds compliance and is accommodating to those who inquire about our products. Beginning in FY2022, the Medical Information Center has assigned area-based responders with specialized knowledge to respond directly to customers even more accurately and promptly than ever before. In addition, we conduct daily training in questioning and explanation skills as well as in medical and pharmaceutical knowledge so that we can investigate drug information based on an understanding of the background of the inquiry and provide accurate and easy-to-understand explanations.
We have introduced many systems , including artificial intelligence (AI), and utilize them to respond to inquiries. These include systems that instantly present the most appropriate Q&A to the responders, and a voice recognition system that connects the caller to a responder in charge of the area relevant to each product inquired about. We have also introduced a system that enables us to respond to inquiries in a remote work environment, so that we can continue to respond to inquiries as much as possible, even in emergency situations.
Meanwhile, in October 2021, we launched an AI-based DI chatbot, “Anytime DI24 ,” on our website for healthcare professionals so that they can obtain information without having to call the Medical Information Center . Together with the “Frequently Asked Questions” posted on our website (in Japanese only), we have created an environment where accurate information is available 24/7/365.
As a result of these initiatives, we received the No. 1 overall satisfaction rating in a call center evaluation survey*3 of health insurance pharmacists in Japan for six consecutive years from FY2016 through FY2021.
The Medical Information Center will continue to contribute to healthcare not only by responding to inquiries from healthcare professionals and patients, but also by sharing the inquiries and requests as valuable feedback within the Company for further improvement, and by creating an environment where product information can be obtained and used accurately, quickly, and conveniently through the integration of human and digital technologies.

*3 Survey outsourced to an external research firm

【VOICE】  Aiming to Provide an Inquiry Response that Meets the Expectations of the Person Making the Inquiry

Hiroko Nakamura
Cancer and Narcotics Group
Medical Information Department
Sales Division, Japan Business Unit
Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.

The Medical Information Center is responsible for responding to inquiries about our products from healthcare professionals and patients. We are committed to providing highly specialized information, improving the quality of our response, and utilizing customer feedback with the aim of responding to inquiries in a way that is attentive to those who contact us and meets their expectations. We respond to inquiries on a daily basis with the goal of providing information that is useful to our customers. We strive to understand why they approach us and what their true needs are. To this end, we assign a person in charge of each disease area, and strive to acquire knowledge through various training programs to provide information with a higher level of expertise, including in oncology.
Ninety-nine percent of all inquiries from healthcare professionals and patients are received by phone. We are working to improve the quality of our response so that we can listen to our customers closely and speak sincerely with not only those who make inquiries, but also those who are affected by our response. In some cases, the valuable feedback we received led to improvements in product development and formulations. We will remain committed to responding to inquiries in a way that meets expectations from customers so that we can contribute to solving the problems of those who make inquiries and become a trusted healthcare partner.

Number of Inquiries Received (Patients, Healthcare Professionals)

Breakdown of Inquiries by Content (Fiscal 2019)

System to Utilize Customer Feedback

We consider "Voices of Customers (VOC)",received from patients and healthcare professionals,as to be the most precious of all information. VOCs collected on a daily basis, for example, through the Medical Information Center, are analyzed, evaluated, and shared promptly among employees through the VOC portal. These data are used to address issues and ultimately leveraged to develop solution measures and responses to diverse medical needs, identify the (seeds of) clinical questions behind the inquiries, and help resolve medical problems. Some data that have led to improvements in product formulation and packaging have been released on the “Turning Our Customer’s Voices into Reality” page of the Daiichi Sankyo website. We believe that responding quickly to ever-changing medical needs through creating better products that reflect the feedback we receive will lead to contributions to social.

Please visit here for the article “Minasama-no-Koe wo Katachi ni” (Turning Our Customer’s Voices into Reality).

Communication with Patients

The Daiichi Sankyo Group places emphasis on communication with patients. We communicate with patients through multiple channels, such as the Medical Information Center, which directly receives inquiries regarding information on Daiichi Sankyo Group’s medicines prescribed at medical institutions, indirect communication via drug development and healthcare professionals, and a supplementary communication tool to help understand drugs via the “Kusuri-no-Shiori (Drug Information Sheet)” posted on our website.

Medical Affairs Division’s Activities

Medical Affairs promotes activities that generate new information about our products and nurture medicines.
Based on our medical and scientific expertise, we are committed to generating new evidence about our products by interacting with healthcare professionals, identifying clinical questions (questions related to drug usage from patients or healthcare professionals), and designing studies and engaging in clinical research to clarify these questions, while ensuring fairness, independence , and transparency. The results of our clinical research are actively disseminated through presentations at domestic and international conferences and publication in medical papers. Committed to our daily activities, we aim to be a partner that delivers healthcare solutions to patients and their families, healthcare professionals, and stakeholders around the world by generating and disseminating high-value evidence for the pharmaceuticals the Daiichi Sankyo Group delivers to the world.

Efforts through COMPASS

We will create medicines that meet patients' needs! To accomplish our hope, the Japan R&D Division has planned and provided bedside visits at hospitals and lectures to have the opportunities of direct communication with patients and healthcare professionals as part of the COMPASS (“Compassion for Patients” Strategy) activities.

In fiscal 2019, we held two lectures and launched a new initiative, in addition to the ongoing bedside visits. The first lecture was delivered by Dr. Katsuya Akimoto, who has been engaged in pharmacokinetic research at Daiichi Sankyo and has continued to work while receiving cancer treatment. Dr. Akimoto talked about how he has dealt with the disease and treatment, and his experience in actively involving himself in determining his own treatment plan. The second lecture titled “The Bright and Dark Sides of Medical Advancement — Lessons Learned from Children Regarding the Truth Hidden under the Armor of a ‘Patient,’” co-organized with SHIFT (Strategic Consortium for Health Innovation and Future Transformation), was delivered by Mr. Masakazu Soejima (Associate Professor at Showa University). Mr. Soejima, who is a homeroom teacher in hospital classes, has taught more than 1500 children struggling against serious diseases and had been a model of a character in the TV program 'Red-nosed Teacher'. While more and more lives have been saved by advances in medical technology, the number of children who cannot be apart from ventilators, for example, has doubled. Therefore, it has greatly become important to create an environment where these children can live their own lives, even with their illnesses. Children with diseases struggle with different conflicts, pretending not being afraid of surgery or enduring loneliness so as not to perplex their parents, brothers and sisters, and teachers. Mr. Soejima explained, in a dialogue with the participants, that some children cannot unarm their emotions and are unable to convey their feelings to their parents or doctors. He also introduced his efforts to help children who had almost lost their sense of self-esteem feel happy to have been born into this world. Positive and sympathetic feedbacks were received from the participants, including those who said that they were helped to realize that drugs were not the only approach for fighting illnesses, and others who expressed their intention to stay motivated at work by focusing on patients and their families as the ultimate goal for treatment, rather than the illness itself.
As a new initiative, we held the ‘DS Round Table Talking,’ on a pilot basis, where patients and our employees could sit around a table and talk over tea. We planned this event because we thought that, it would be necessary to have an environment where they can have a relaxed conversation in close proximity in order to find out the true feelings of patients about their diseases and treatments, and in order for the patients to enhance their understanding of pharmaceutical companies’ R&D efforts. The patients told us that this is a good opportunity to discuss issues related to disease and to convey the value of medicine to employees of pharmaceutical company. An internal participant also said that the event was a great chance for employees to feel the meaning of the corporate slogan, “Passion for Innovation. Compassion for Patients.”   
In fiscal 2020, it may be difficult to provide opportunities to meet patients in person because of COVID-19. Now more than ever, however, is the time for us to look back on our past activities, enhance each Daiichi Sankyo employee’s understanding of patients and medical practice, and undertake initiatives that lead to discovery of drugs that can meet the needs of patients.  

Proposal of product concepts standing close to  patients’ and healthcare professionals’ opinion

Through communication with patients and healthcare professionals, Daiichi Sankyo seeks to develop formulations that adds values including usability, reassurance, and satisfaction with consideration for the true needs in healthcare settings. For example, an anti-influenza virus agent, Inavir nebulizer formulation, was launched in October 2019, in addition to Inavir Dry Powder Inhaler. Inavir nebulizer was developed to enable patients with difficulties in taking existing dry powder inhalers, such as children and the elderly, to inhale the misted medicine by natural breathing. On top of that, the disposable inhaler is applied to save time and effort of disinfection for healthcare professionals, and to reduce risk of infection for patients and healthcare professionals.
In this way, we will continue to hone our pharmaceutical technology and contribute to patients and healthcare professionals by improving usability, reassurance, and satisfaction.

Formulation, Labeling and Packaging Schemes for Easier-to-Swallow Medication and Prevention of Medication Errors

Daiichi Sankyo Espha offers generics that are easy to swallow and prevent medication errors. For example, we improved the distinguishability of tablets by printing the drug name on both sides and labeling the PTP sheets with barcodes and original symbols. In addition, Daiichi Sankyo Espha developed innovative labeling called “iPackage” on the individual packaging box. The iPackage features the following: (1) Detachable information card with code involving expiration date, manufacturing number that can be used as a product shelf label or to manage remaining sheets; (2) Tablet image that allows appearance of tablet to be checked before opening the package; and (3) a QR code that displays the package insert when scanned. Several AGs*4 that we launched also incorporate double-sided printing on tablets and the iPackage design. There are cases where the family members of patients, especially small children, take relatively high risk medicines such as anticancer drugs by mistake. Daiichi Sankyo Espha developed outer packaging for PTP sheets (C-Guard/Child Guard) for the purpose of preventing people from accidentally touching drugs and drugs from falling out, with the added feature that it prevents accidental ingestion by small children.

*4 Authorized generics: Generic drug manufactured after receiving license from the brand-name pharmaceutical company