Our medical representatives are responsible for providing customers with product information. A new system launched in 2004 which aims to enhance their specialized knowledge and to achieve more finely targeted product promotions is now beginning to produce results. Under the new product promotion system, which is directed at core hospitals such as university hospitals and postgraduate education hospitals, a team of 310 medical representatives is responsible for acute fields while another team of 250 medical representatives takes charge of chronic fields.

In the general practitioner market, 710 medical representatives have been deployed to provide support to primary in each area, which is growing in importance notably due to the increased emphasis on coordination between primary care facilities and hospitals. Additionally, to provide scientific support to the primary care team, we have appointed 60 medical representatives specializing in cerebral circulatory, respiratory, orthopedic surgery, and other fields. Along with the medical representatives of two of our subsidiaries — 185 at Yoshitomiyakuhin Corporation, which is responsible for the field of psychiatric medicine, and 30 at Benesis Corporation, which is in charge of plasma fractionation products — we now have a 1,545 medical representatives who are beginning to make an impact at the frontline of medical care. Ultimately, we envisage that all our medical representatives should become all-round players. With their comprehensive understanding of our products and ability to promote them with confidence, our medical representatives take pride in working for a research-driven pharmaceutical company that supplies valuable products and have developed a firm belief in the social contribution they make by delivering pharmaceutical products to our customers.

The role of medical representatives is not merely to supply information. Another important role is to provide feedback to research and development divisions and other parts of our organization based on information they gain by deepening communication with medical professionals and building relationships of trust. In this sense, medical representatives are another arm of our research and development operations.