Message from the Vice President

SDGs in the Prescription Pharmaceutical Wholesale Business

All the products we distribute support people’s lives and health. Therefore, our businesses will continue to ensure the delivery of the necessary pharmaceuticals, both in normal times and during emergencies. We recognize this as our mission and the fact that it will help achieve the SDGs.
Our high-performance ALCs^* are the foundation of our business, and we have 12 throughout Japan from Hokkaido to Kyushu. They are earthquake-resistant/base-isolated buildings and also feature disaster countermeasures such as in-house power generation systems, emergency delivery motorcycles, and on-site refueling equipment. We also promote logistical mutual cooperation among areas.
We are evolving logistics in line with contemporary trends. Our storage and delivery system supports the control of various temperature bands, enabling us to stably supply difficult to manage COVID-19 vaccines and orphan drugs. In addition, we are creating solutions from the perspective of optimizing our entire supply chain. For example, inspection by individual scans^* significantly reduces the inspection time for pharmaceutical products, which creates more time for medical staff to do their work. In addition, reduced contact has helped reduce the risk of viral infection.
We are currently focusing on reforming our delivery methods. We analyze the optimal drug inventory and delivery schedule for each medical institution and dispensing pharmacy. We then work to streamline ordering and optimize the number of deliveries, while collaborating with our customers in initiatives to reduce CO₂ emissions.
Japan currently is facing the issue of an aging population and experiences many natural disasters, so we are helping to build a sustainable society with distribution that supports people’s healthy lifestyles. The Group is working toward this important goal by fostering a corporate culture in which each Group employee has high aspirations, always thinks about what the company can achieve, and then works to achieve those goals.

^*ALC (Area Logistics Center)：A state-of-the-art distribution center in the Prescription Pharmaceutical Wholesale Business. ALCs provide highly functional logistics services to healthcare institutions, including a large selection of pharmaceuticals and related items, high shipping accuracy, Saturday delivery, and partial lot sales.

^*Inspection by individual scans：A method shortening product inspection time by switching from the conventional method of reading packing slips to scanning information for individual products from barcodes on the delivery boxes.