Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) has decided to re-align its marketing system in Japan from what is called "the General Medical Representative (MR) System", where each MR is responsible for all of Takeda products, to the system where each MR is responsible for one of three therapeutic areas; “Cardiovascular/Metabolic Diseases”, “Gastrointestinal, Central Nervous System, Urological and Bone/Rheumatic Diseases” and “Oncology”.

This new system in Japan will be effective April 1st, 2014. Managers of sales offices and Team Leaders under the Managers will remain responsible for all Takeda products, while managing MRs responsible for each of the three designated therapeutic areas. Managers and Team Leaders will also continue to engage in medical information distribution activities tailored to their region's unique characteristics and engage in promotional activities in cooperation with distributors, both of which contribute greatly to Takeda's competitive advantage in Japan.

Takeda has launched many new products in Japan since 2010 and is scheduled to launch multiple new products, including SYR-472 for type 2 diabetes, TAK-438 for acid-related diseases, and Adcetris for malignant lymphoma. Accompanying an increased number of products, the range of therapeutic areas that MRs handle has also been broadly widened to cover medical information distribution activities for lifestyle-related diseases, central nervous system diseases, oncology, and more. From proposing treatments for each disease to providing detailed information about the highly specialized science behind each medicine, Takeda’s MRs are required to have an ever increasing level of knowledge and skills. Because of this, the conventional general MR system will be shifted to a system where each MR focuses more on one designated therapeutic area, to further improve their functional expertise, while also continuing to respond to the diverse needs of healthcare professionals in Japan.

After the re-alignment, MRs for each therapeutic area will cooperate with each other to implement medical information distribution activities in each area under the direction of their respective Managers and Team Leaders. In Japan, Takeda will continue internal MR training for all products so that MRs have the proper knowledge base to respond to inquiries from healthcare professionals regarding all Takeda products. At the same time, Takeda will provide internal MR training for each respective therapeutic area so that MRs also have a high level of knowledge and a deep understanding of their specialty area. With regard to the vaccine area, this announcement will not affect the manner in which the vaccine MRs currently engage in their medical information distribution activities.

“The environment surrounding the pharmaceutical industry in Japan and Takeda has changed drastically,” said Masato Iwasaki, director and senior vice president of the pharmaceutical marketing division. “Accordingly, we are re-aligning our marketing system in order to allow our MRs to better meet the evolving demands placed on them. In order to continue delivering our innovative medicines to even more patients and healthcare professionals, we are striving to implement transformations that provide new value (new medicines) to stakeholders by putting our unchanged core value, Takeda-ism, into action with integrity.”