Santen's ongoing effort
to build a strong global product supply base

In anticipation of the ever-expanding demand for ophthalmology in the world and the diversification of its products, Santen is working to establish a flexible product supply network and to strengthen its production bases to expand its production capacity.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 2.2 billion people live with blindness or visual impairment and, in at least 1 billion of these cases, vision impairment could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed. Meanwhile, demand for ophthalmology is expected to increase due to global population growth, aging, and lifestyle changes. In addition, some eye diseases require ongoing treatment. For Santen to continue meeting this growing need, it is necessary to establish a system that can stably produce and supply prescription pharmaceuticals.

Santen has been working to strengthen its product supply system to ensure a stable global supply of products by reorganizing production bases, shortening supply lead times through final packaging at destination, and reducing costs by transferring manufacturing from other companies' plants to our own. With the aim of establishing an even stronger product supply base, we are currently also working to establish a flexible product supply network and strengthen our production bases to expand production capacity.

On October 26, 2022, construction was completed on Third Building at our Shiga Product Supply Center in Japan, one of our production bases.

President and CEO Takeshi Ito, who attended the ceremony marking completion of the third building within the Shiga Product Supply Center, said:

“The new building was constructed to accommodate the increasing worldwide demand and further globalization of our company. In the new building, we aim to improve productivity by more than 30% through the introduction of automated equipment and other measures. As part of our responsibilities to protect people's eye health, we will achieve a stable supply of products to patients, while at the same time working to protect the global environment through resource conservation and reduction of environmental impact by shifting to low-carbon energy, effectively utilizing water resources, and switching to biomass plastic containers. We are confident that looking ahead we will be able to contribute more than ever before to more patients around the world. The employees of the Shiga Plant, along with our entire company, will make even greater efforts and devote ourselves to this endeavor."

The Shiga Plant Manager explained the strengthening of the product supply base that is beginning to be addressed in the new building as follows:

“In order for Santen to become more competitive as a truly global company, we must not only continue to provide a stable supply of high-quality products, but we must also work to reduce costs and reform our business processes without being constrained by existing frameworks. Accordingly, the project to construct the new building involved not only the management and product supply teams, but also many internal departments, including quality assurance, supply chain, IT, and human resources."

“Our goal at the Shiga Third Building is to ‘achieve unparalleled QCCD (Quality, Cost, Capacity, Delivery)’. We are actively taking on the challenge of introducing new technologies and systems. Especially in the early stages of the new building's operation, there are many opportunities to establish new production processes, and this is the perfect time to pursue new initiatives. As a place for Proof of Concept (POC) testing, we would like to expand the results of any initiatives verified here to other factories."

Santen will continue to contribute to the eye health of more people around the world by producing and supplying high-quality products in a timely, more efficient, and stable manner.

The evolution of patient-friendly Dimple Bottle eye-drop container

Re-thinking eye health on World Sight Day

Santen Strengthens Global Product Supply Base with Completion of Third Building on Site of Shiga Product Supply Center