ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President & CEO: Haruo Naito, “ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½”) 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 ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ China Inc., effective April 1. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has 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 ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ East 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, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ decided to appoint a locally-hired president at ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ China with the expectation that they will exercise strong leadership in driving future growth. As a result of this appointment, all of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½'s major overseas subsidiaries are now headed by locally-hired presidents.

ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ plans 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 ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ East Asia Region framework, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ aims 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, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.), current president of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ China, will assume the role of chairman.