Santen

Marianthi Psacha

In recent years, cell and gene therapies have been redefining the treatment paradigm in a number of disease areas. These therapies offer the potential to change the lives of patients suffering from previously incurable conditions. Santen being a company focused on ophthalmology, fully committed to reducing the loss of social and economic opportunities for people with eye conditions, it feels natural as well as necessary for us to expand into this promising field.

For the past 130 years, Santen has been contributing to people’s eye health, expanding to cover over 60 countries and reaching the number 1 position in the Japanese and Chinese ophthalmic markets. As part of our new vision towards 2030, we are focusing on building our capabilities in order to leverage new technological advancements. We recently established a dedicated, global Cell & Gene Therapy business unit, committed to changing the lives of patients with inherited retinal diseases through transformative solutions.

As we create a high-performing, sustainable and scalable platform for cell and gene therapies, we have aimed to maintain an intricate balance between leveraging the expertise and footprint we benefit from as an established, specialized pharmaceutical company, and developing new skills and capabilities to ensure we are able to tackle the unique challenges linked to this field.

The cell and gene therapy field is evolving rapidly and represents higher risks compared to existing technologies. Developing such therapies therefore requires an agile, adaptable and risk-tolerant mindset. We have built an incredibly diverse team with deep expertise and experience across the ophthalmology, retina and rare disease fields. Team members already have experience dealing with the unique go to market approach required for cell and gene therapies, linked to, for example the small patient population associated with rare diseases.

Additionally, in this rapidly changing field, functional boundaries tend to dissolve, requiring rapid input from all functions into key decisions. To ensure optimal cross-functionality, our platform builds on an integrated strategy of operations and commercialization.

At the same time, we continue to leverage the existing expertise, market presence and relationships Santen has built over the years as a company with a deep heritage. Our team is guided by the overarching Santen vision of becoming a social innovator. Each and every team member strongly believes in the potential of cell and gene therapies to change the lives of patients living with inherited retinal dystrophies, a group of diseases for which there are currently very few approved treatments. With this in mind, we are fully committed to ensuring the success of current and future assets.

Vision is essential to so many aspects of our daily lives- in addition to employment and education, it also plays a key role in our personal lives by allowing us to communicate with others. Without vision, we can’t carry out simple tasks we often take for granted, such as driving a car or changing a lightbulb. In new technological advancements, we see the potential to allow patients suffering from progressive sight loss, who currently do not have any treatment options available to them, an opportunity to participate in such activities. Through our expansion into cell and gene therapies, we see the potential to change lives.