Four Japanese Firms Collaborate on Sustainable Pharmaceutical Packaging

Astellas Pharma, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo and Takeda announced last week that the four companies have agreed to collaborate to reduce the environmental burden in the field of pharmaceutical packaging.

Based on the agreement, the four companies will aim to promote the use of more environmentally friendly packaging for pharmaceutical products by sharing knowledge on packaging technologies to reduce the environmental burden, such as blister packs made of biomass-based plastic instead of petroleum-derived plastic, compact packaging, recycled packaging materials, and recyclable packaging materials.

Astellas, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo and Takeda aim to ensure that society benefits from this collaboration to harmonize corporate activities with the global environment. In the future, the four companies expect to expand this collaboration beyond the four companies by calling on other companies to participate in reducing the environmental burden.

■  Sustainability Initiatives of Each Company

Astellas has set "Deepen our engagement in sustainability" as one of the strategic goals in its Corporate Strategic Plan 2021. The reduction of the environmental burden is one of Astellas' priority themes within sustainability.

Eisai established the "Eisai Environmental Management Vision" this fiscal year, and in addition to climate change countermeasures aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by fiscal 2040, Eisai has formed a medium- to long-term plan for environmental issues including efficient use of water and recycling of resources, and will work to further advance these efforts.

As a healthcare company with the Purpose “to contribute to the enrichment of quality of life around the world,” Daiichi Sankyo considers global environmental conservation a key management issue and promotes environmental management.

At Takeda, “Purpose-led Sustainability” is about creating both business and societal value through its core business. Takeda continues to reduce its operational carbon footprint and is now committed to achieving net-zero GHG emissions for scopes 1 and 2 before 2035 and for Scope 3 before 2040.

More information about the companies’ sustainability initiatives can be found on the companies’ websites:

Astellas website. 

Eisai website.

Daiichi Sankyo website. 

Takeda website.