By Nana Ando / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Major Japanese pharmaceutical firm Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo is offering unique training to support the development of personnel involved in patient group management to establish stable organizational foundations and sustain their activities.

In fiscal 2021, it launched the leadership training program to equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary for management. Participants can attend five free lectures per year, given by external instructors such as university faculty and human resource development consultants.

The lectures cover topics like enhancing communication skills and approaches to organizational management. Over the past four events, a total of 72 participants from 51 groups have attended. This has led to tangible outcomes, such as participants presenting their activities at academic conferences gathering domestic specialist physicians and establishing connections with overseas patient groups.

The program for fiscal 2025 began in late September, with eight participants from six cancer or intractable disease patient groups attending the first session. A lecturer taught key dialogue points, such as listening to others' stories with curiosity and avoiding interruptions. Participants then paired up to interview each other, sharing their stories, including the background of their groups' founding and passion for their activities. Through February 2026, they plan to develop project plans for their groups and learn such things as how to write grant applications.

"It was a good opportunity to objectively observe my own posture when listening," said a participant, Satoru Komiya, a 44-year-old member from an organization in Ibaraki Prefecture. The organization's activities include sharing the members' experiences with cancer at schools and companies. "Interacting with other groups also gave me a chance to view our own challenges from a broader perspective," he added.

While some companies subsidize patient group project and operational costs, these groups often struggle not only with funding but also with securing and developing personnel for organizational management and enhancing their public relations capabilities, among other issues.

"For the company too, this has become a place to understand patients' true needs, encompassing not just treatment but their lives," said Yoshiko Kawano, who oversees the program at Astellas Pharma. "We hope this initiative will help patient groups mature as organizations and become capable of changing society."

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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October 14, 2025 02:19 ET (06:19 GMT)

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