Takeda’s data science team confronts the challenges of digital transformation in pharma

Takeda is focused on harnessing data and digital capabilities at every stage of the pharmaceutical value chain – from drug discovery to drug manufacturing, delivery and product lifecycle management. Our goal is to continue to grow Takeda into the most trusted, science-driven, digital biopharmaceutical company.

And to achieve this goal, we’re harnessing the latest advances in data science and pushing at the frontiers of what is possible in the field to help our company innovate even more.

The role of the data scientist

Along with a sharp knowledge of statistics and analytical abilities, data scientists have a high degree of expertise in IT and can apply analyzed results to actual business situations. The ability to communicate well with colleagues in other fields when working on projects is also essential.

At Takeda, data scientists with diverse experiences and backgrounds are involved at every stage of the pharmaceutical value chain – from drug discovery to manufacturing, supply and product lifecycle management – in order to improve business processes and productivity to advance the company’s future growth and evolution. Let’s meet the team working on the manufacturing process.

Shunsuke Fukagawa, head of the Data Science Group within the Strategy and Business Excellence Division at GMS Japan

Driving Takeda's evolution

“In manufacturing pharmaceutical products that directly affect patients’ bodies, Takeda tightly controls the manufacturing process, observing the regulations set by relevant authorities. The manufacturing systems for these products are fully validated at the time of installation to ensure strong process control and also provide an accurate record of manufacturing data. To make this data available for analysis on Takeda’s cloud platform, there are many things to consider in designing an IT architecture and meet approvals to comply with regulations and company policies. In such a complex environment, it is extremely challenging to find a way to accelerate innovation to make Takeda best in class,” explains Shunsuke Fukagawa, head of the Data Science Group within the Strategy and Business Excellence Division at GMS Japan.

To meet this challenge, Fukagawa assembled a team that includes experts from diverse backgrounds. These experts include Takashi Yagi, who is applying his extensive experience in the manufacturing industry to develop a KPI monitoring system; Yasuyuki Tanaka, who is using his data analytics ability and experience in hardware development that he acquired across the academic, automotive and aerospace industries to develop a sensor system and algorithm to detect and predict malfunctions of manufacturing systems; and Noah Hindes, who works on improving manufacturing yield based on his familiarity with the medical and pharmaceutical industries both in Japan and the U.S.

This outstanding data science team works in close cooperation with colleagues in our manufacturing facilities and is uniquely positioned to support our internal processes and business activities. And through the incorporation of more diversified skills and new perspectives, they will continue to meet the challenges of realizing a better future every day.