Chapter 4 Overview of Operations/Activities Fiscal 2013 Initiatives As part of CSR-based management, Astellas aims to generate sustained growth by  creating innovative drugs and delivering them to patients. We actively undertake CSR  activities across the five fields of Economy (business activities), Employees, Society,  Environment and Compliance, which we consider to be the foundation for the other  fields. This section introduces some of the specific activities that we conducted in  fiscal 2013, considering them from various aspects. Economy (BUSInESS AcTIVITIES) L R&D Initiatives Drug Discovery Research: Challenge for Innovation Under this structure, we aim to actively utilize state-of-the-art  external technologies, as we attempt to enter new therapeutic  areas and adopt new platform technologies for drug discovery.  In fiscal 2013, we formed alliances with bio-ventures in the  fields of skeletal muscle disease, mitochondrial disorders and  oncology. As part of adopting new platform technologies, we  established a unit for regenerative medicine in Drug Discovery  Research. This unit promotes research in cell therapies that  treat patients by taking advantage of the diversity of cells and  their advanced functionality. Since May 2013, we have reshaped Astellas’ drug discovery  research functions and reinforced the research management  structure. These changes have enabled more dynamic man- agement of our research organization, while further enhanced  our expertise, clarifying roles within the organization and re- allocating functions. At the same time, we continued to channel research  efforts into our focus therapeutic areas of urology, immunology  (including transplantation) & infectious diseases, oncology,  neuroscience and diabetes mellitus (DM) complications &  kidney diseases. In these areas too, we are advancing multiple  promising compounds to clinical stages. Our R&D reforms are steadily generating results. On top of  pursuing research in our existing focus therapeutic areas, we  also promote a network-style research framework to acquire  external innovation timely and further develop our capability in  new therapeutic areas and drug discovery platform technologies. Another important aspect of this reorganization has been  the creation of a network-style research system that aims to  promote an open approach to innovation in drug discovery. We  are engaging in dynamic research activities by deploying cut- ting-edge science, utilizing distinguished internal and external  talents, and adapting the most suitable locations worldwide. Wataru Uchida,  Ph.D. Senior Vice President  and President, Drug  Discovery Research Astellas Pharma Inc.  _ Annual Report 2014 Immuno-Biological  Laboratories Co., Ltd. (Gunma, Japan) Transgenic silkworms (Tsukuba, Japan) Regenerative Medicine Unit Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (Tokyo, Japan) Compound library exchange Cytokinetics, Incorporated (San Francisco, U.S.) Skeletal muscle disease Ambrx Inc. (San Diego, U.S.) Next generation ADC technologies The Lieber Institute for Brain  Development (Maryland, U.S.) Novel CNS drug Mitokyne, Inc. (Boston, U.S.) Mitochondria-related  diseases ClearPath Development  Company (Maryland, U.S.) Vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus Pursuing New Therapeutic Areas and Drug Discovery Platform Technologies Network-Style Research Framework Harnesses Best Science, Best Talent and Best Place Cancer Research UK (London, U.K.) Anti-cancer agent ADC: Antibody-drug conjugate CNS: Central nervous system 36