Customer Success Story: Kyorin Pharmaceutical Speeds Time to Market

The process of isolating a useful chemical compound, producing a safe pill and getting it approved in markets around the globe is one of the most difficult collaborative enterprises in the world of business. When Kyorin Pharmaceutical of Japan decided recently to speed up its drug development process, it knew that shaving just six months from a process that often takes more than a decade could shift millions of dollars from the expense column to the revenue column. Like many large pharmaceutical companies, Kyorin's activities are widely spread. It has 70 offices, laboratories and factories around Japan and dozens of corporate partners around the globe. So one of the reforms that the company introduced was naturally video-conferencing. TANDERG visual communication systems were installed at 14 of the company's most important sites: eight branch offices, three factories, two R&D laboratories and the headquarters in Tokyo. The immediate result was a drop in travel expenses to one-third of their previous level. Yet the benefits did not stop there. "Not only is there a cost savings, but the systems create intangible added value by making communication between our many locations so seamless," says Tsutomo Kawamura, the Assistant Chief of Kyorin's General Affairs Dept.