What is "Health & Well-being" in Kirin Group?
“Health & Well-being” in the KIRIN CSV Purposes
The Kirin Group has set “Health & Well-being” as one of our CSV Purposes and aims to "Raise the number of healthy people, lower the number of sick people, and contribute to the people who are involved in healthcare".
Since our founding in 1907, our group have refined its technological capabilities, particularly in fermentation and biotechnology, through its brewing business. In the 1980s, our group took on the challenge of entering and diversifying into the pharmaceutical business. The pharmaceutical business of Kirin Brewery has since grown further as a result of the merger with the former Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, and has now grown to become a business that represents one segment of our group. Today, we are developing our business activities with the aim of successfully transforming the Group's portfolio through growth in the health science area in order to create value in areas ranging from food & beverage to pharmaceuticals.
The health-related concerns of our customers and society have increased enormously, influenced to a large extent by the current social environment. While health-related issues are common to all human beings around the world, the nature of the challenges they face varies from person to person depending on their life stage and characteristics. In general, more and more people are trying to eat a well-balanced diet and exercise daily, while many other issues such as obesity and non-communicable diseases are also arising. Therefore, while utilizing the wide range of customer contacts with which we have built trust over many years, we aim to "Raise the number of healthy people, lower the number of sick people, and contribute to the people who are involved in healthcare" by providing science-based products and services that do not lie or deceive, addressing both the health of the customer's common and individual health issues.
Management issues for sustainable growth in the area of “Health & Well-being”
We have organized the key themes for our sustainable existence and development together with society into the “Management issue for Sustainable Growth (Group Materiality Matrix :GMM)”. In order to realize growth in the areas of food & beverage, health science and pharmaceuticals under the long-term management vison KV2027, we are working to resolve various key health-related issues by considering the impact not only on our own business, but also on our multi-stakeholders, including our employees.
First of all, as a company that manufactures food and pharmaceutical products, it is important that our customers and patients can safely consume and use safe products. For this reason, we are developing our business with the primary focus on “ensuring food safety and security' and 'ensuring stable supply, safety and reliability as a pharmaceutical company”.
On the basis of our quality-related initiatives, we are committed to contributing to society through value creation. In the pharmaceuticals business, our priority is to "provide pharmaceuticals for Unmet Medical Needs", and we will contribute to many patients around the world through the global development of Crysvita, through Kyowa Kirin. In the area of food & beverage and health science, we will create value by addressing four challenges. These are: 'support for maintaining the immune system' through LC-Plazma related products; 'support for the prevention of non-communicable diseases' as health support by not taking too much; 'helping to improve the performance of brain function and prevent decline' by leveraging our technological capabilities; and 'improvement of access to nutrition'. We aim to resolve these issues in the future by fostering and expanding the health science business across the group so that we can become our customers' "healthy lifestyle partner in the 100-year life era".
Last but not least, in order to realize the above, the health issues of our group's employees are also important.
In the area of 'implementation of health management', as a company that delivers 'Health & Well-being' to customers, we aim to create an environment and opportunities for employees to proactively develop healthy bodies and minds and work in a way that allows each and every one of them to work cheerfully and energetically. In 'Ensuring occupational health and safety', as a manufacturing company, we give top priority to the development of a safe and hygienic working environment and also attach great importance to compliance with laws and regulations relating to safety and health in the workplace.
We will continue to work on solving health issues for our customers and society through CSV management, with the aim of bringing joy to society by crafting food and healthcare.