Sustainability

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Our Materiality (Material Issues) and Related SDGs

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiatives

Initiatives for Health

Taiho Pharmaceutical creates innovative products and seeks ways to maintain and promote better health for all.

Taiho Pharmaceutical is one of Japan’s foremost creators of anticancer agents, with 50 years of experience in chemotherapies. Taiho Pharmaceutical pioneered oral anticancer formulations before they became common worldwide. In 1974, the company introduced the oral anticancer agent Futraful, and has since brought to market UFT (in 1984), TS-1 (in 1999), and LONSURF (in 2014). The company strives to meet patients’ needs in the area of oncology, including new formulations (UFT in capsules and enteric granules; and TS-1 in capsules, granules, and orally disintegrating tablets) and development of UZEL (in 2003) with the aim of strengthening the efficacy of UFT in treating colorectal cancer. These oral formulations are recommended in medical guidelines for a number of different cancers in Japan. Recommended under treatment guidelines in Europe and North America, LONSURF, a treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer, and, in U.S., a treatment for metastatic gastric cancer, is expected to help improve the treatment of cancer worldwide. The company also continues its global clinical development of new products. While there has been enormous recent progress in cancer treatment, significant unmet medical needs remain. Following its development in Japan, in 2015 Taiho Pharmaceutical launched Yondelis, a treatment for soft tissue sarcoma that is recommended in European and North American medical guidelines. The company also is committed to developing treatments for rare cancers in cases where unmet medical needs are deep. With the patient’s perspective in mind, the Otsuka group is committed to research and development on new anticancer drugs that will be integral in future cancer treatments and that will help with supportive care, such as antiemetic agents and drugs to alleviate cancer pain.

Initiatives for the Environment

Taiho Pharmaceutical has established an Environmental Policy based on the Otsuka Group Environmental Policy and is striving to achieve its environmental targets.

Social and Community Contribution Activities

Through partnerships with local communities and NPOs, Taiho Pharmaceutical will contribute to the creation of societies enriched by smiles.

Taiho Smile Support: SupportingSolutions That Address Issues Related to Cancer

The Taiho Smile Support program supports crowdfunding by organizations and individuals seeking to solve various social issues related to cancer that cannot be solved by drugs alone. Matching funds are given when the target amount is reached.

Taiho Pharmaceutical Makes Donations to 15 Organizations Related to Cancer and Health

  • Tiovita Drink limited edition package

Taiho Pharmaceutical conducted a commemorative event in the form of CSR initiatives with employee participation to mark its 55th anniversary in 2017. During the event, Taiho Pharmaceutical sold within the company 55th-anniversary limited-edition packages of Tiovita Drink. The company will donate a total of 55 million yen—the full proceeds from the sale of those packages plus a matching gift from the company—every year, over the five years from 2017 to 2021, to a total of 15 organizations involved with cancer and health. A second donation was made in 2018. The amount given to the 15 organizations will reflect the wishes of the employees who made the purchases. The donations are intended to support each organization’s future activities.

Supporting the Pink Ribbon Campaign

  • Taiho Booth at Pink Ribbon Symposium in Tokyo

Taiho Pharmaceutical supports the Pink Ribbon Campaign, a worldwide effort to raise awareness of breast cancer. In its campaign activities, Taiho Pharmaceutical disseminates accurate information about breast cancer and promotes early screening.
Taiho Pharmaceutical will continue providing information both in and outside the company so that society as a whole will be more aware of breast cancer. Taiho wants you and those you love to keep smiling into the future.

Participation in Tokushima Cooperative Forestry Project

Since fiscal 2010, the Tokushima Plant has signed annual partnership agreements for the Cooperative Forestry Project with Tokushima Prefecture and the Tokushima Forestry Promotion
Organization. Through these agreements, Taiho Pharmaceutical sponsors forest promotion projects within the prefecture. The activities, such as forest maintenance and conservation through thinning, etc., have increased CO2 absorption by these forests, which in turn helps to address global warming.
Taiho Pharmaceutical will continue to support the Cooperative Forestry Project, not just through donations, but also through thinning and tree planting carried out by employees and their families.

  • Forestry activity

Promoting Diversity

Recognizing the great value of its human resources, Taiho Pharmaceutical promotes diversity and is working hard to ensure that every employee is able to work with vitality.

Joining the Ikuboss Project

In addition to providing career support from the career counseling office and with human resource development sheets, Taiho Pharmaceutical has been making work-style reforms such as implementing a telecommuting system and a flex-time system, so that employees can play an active role while designing their own ideal future.
In recognition that companies that continuously provide new value to society are built on the efforts of diverse employees, Taiho Pharmaceutical joined the Ikuboss Project* in November 2019. With this move, the company will further promote diversity and inclusion.
Taiho Pharmaceutical will increase the number of managers (“ikubosses”**), who take the initiative to respect the values of each person, support their endeavors and boost employee motivation in order to create workplaces enriched by smiles.
*A company alliance advocated by the NPO Fathering Japan
** Bosses who are committed to their team’s performance and results while also considering and supporting the work and personal lives of their team members, who also enjoy their own work and personal lives.

  • Front row : Tetsuya Ando, Representative Director of the NPO Fathering Japan (Left)
    Nobuyuki Hashimoto, Managing Director of Taiho (right)
    Back row: Members of the Human Resources Department of Taiho

Support for Balancing Employees’ Work and Treatment Needs

As a provider of anticancer drugs, Taiho Pharmaceutical aims to foster workplaces where employees can continue working even while undergoing treatment for cancer or other diseases, and where people from diverse backgrounds can work effectively. The Team for Support for Balancing Work and Treatment Needs in the Human Resources Department and a team of industrial nurses are the main promoters of this effort. They are working to improve relevant HR systems, to train supporters, to create environments that encourage employee consultation with relevant personnel, and to promote awareness-raising activities in and outside the company. The company has programs that enable employees to balance their work and treatment needs, including paid time off (full- and half-day increments), accrued paid time off, working remote, flex-time options, etc. The company also offers options such as extended time-off for employees with cancer and a return to work (reemployment) system. These are part of a full range of programs that allow employees to focus on their treatment and flexibly adjust their work according to the circumstances. As part of efforts for the early detection and treatment of cancer and other diseases, Taiho Pharmaceutical provides support for employees to maintain their health, including partial coverage of medical examination costs.

These initiatives were awarded the gold prize four years in a row at the Cancer Ally Awards in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Support for Balancing Work and Child-Rearing

  • Sukusuku Nursery

Taiho Pharmaceutical has been working to improve the work-life balance of all employees in various ways, including a work-at-home scheme, special days to promote the use of paid leave, and days when employees are encouraged to leave work on time. The company’s Personal Career Counseling Office, staffed with industrial counselors and career consultants, endeavors to provide support that facilitates personal growth. To support the balancing of work and child-rearing, Taiho Pharmaceutical has put in place systems that go beyond statutory requirements and conducts interviews with employees during pregnancy, before maternity leave, and when employees return to work. Taiho Pharmaceutical established Sukusuku Nursery, an on-site daycare in the Tsukuba area (Ibaraki Prefecture). The nursery is able to offer temporary childcare, care for a sick child, and extended-hours childcare, etc. This enables female employees to advance their careers and male employees to be more actively involved in raising their children. Going forward, Taiho Pharmaceutical will keep aiming to create better workplaces for all employees, enabling each and every employee to participate actively by offering diverse work styles that fit each stage of life.

Support for Balancing Work and Family Care

Taiho Pharmaceutical offers a full range of support to help employees’ balance family care and work. This includes a leave period that exceeds the legal requirement and continued payment of the social insurance premiums by the company during the leave. These steps allow employees with family care responsibilities to remain employed. The company intranet provides employees with a handbook that summarizes programs and gives contacts they can use when they need to provide care for a family member. In addition, the company periodically holds seminars on the support available for balancing work and family care. These seminars offer employees the relevant information in order to raise their awareness and allow them to assess their own understanding.

Sustainability Activity Report

Initiatives to Promote Sustainability and the SDGs

Taiho Pharmaceutical established a Sustainability Promotion Committee (a company-wide cross-sectional organization) in July 2021 and a Sustainability Promotion Office in January 2022 to address sustainability throughout the company.
We are also carrying out internal awareness-raising activities to ensure all employees recognize that their daily work is connected to the achievement of the SDGs and to make the SDGs a personal matter to each of them. For example, we invited an outside lecturer for a study session with management-level employees, and we rolled out the 2030 SDGs Game, a card game for employees and management-level employees. We also distribute a newsletter related to sustainability to all employees twice a month.
From September 27 to October 31, 2022, a sustainability exhibit was held in the head office cafeteria, introducing our sustainability initiatives and displaying the Otsuka group’s sustainable products. During the exhibit, we held a Slogan Contest in which employees of Taiho Pharmaceutical expressed their thoughts on sustainability in the form of a short, catchy phrase. As a result of employee voting, two entries were awarded prizes. On October 6, an in-house lecture titled “Sustainable Initiatives in Zero Meat” was held in collaboration with Otsuka Foods. Each initiative encouraged many employees to think about sustainability and the SDGs.

  • Participating in the 2030 SDGs Game
  • Winners of the Slogan Contest
  • Sustainability Exhibit

Environmentally Friendly Initiatives

Taiho Pharmaceutical is committed to environmental friendliness and has incorporated FSC-certified paper into some of its information materials for prescription drugs and packaging materials for consumer healthcare products. We also use some biomass ink for the labels of the Tiovita series and for the packaging of BUP-4 LADY, which was launched in 2021.

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