How Innovation Happens at Takeda
Innovation Across the Product Journey
Bringing a medicine to patients takes more than a scientific breakthrough. It requires thousands of decisions, cross-functional collaboration and a constant focus on improving how work gets done.
At Takeda, innovation happens across that journey: from research and development to manufacturing, quality and delivery. Teams are exploring new ways to improve decision-making, apply technology and streamline processes to help bring potentially life-changing medicines to patients faster.
While the work may look different from one function to the next, it is connected by a shared goal: improving outcomes for patients.
From Strategy to Patient Impact
For Dermatology Strategy and Marketing Lead Angeliki Nikoli, innovation starts long before a treatment reaches patients.
Early decisions around evidence generation, target patient populations and future access strategies can shape how successfully a medicine reaches the people who need it. Bringing together medical, commercial, access and strategy perspectives from the start helps teams evaluate decisions through multiple lenses and build stronger plans.
"Strong cross-functional partnership means moving beyond functional excellence to true integration: where medical, commercial, access and strategy teams are aligned around a shared vision from the outset."
That collaboration extends across disciplines and geographies.
Cynthia Guo, Oncology Therapeutic Area Head in China, saw this while helping address a challenge related to diagnosing patients with CD30-positive lymphoma. Diagnosis relied on pathologists manually reviewing tissue samples and calculating positivity rates, a process that could be time-consuming and subject to variation.
Cynthia's team partnered with Data, Digital & Technology (DD&T) to explore whether AI could help improve consistency and support pathologists in identifying patients who may benefit from treatment. Using data from more than 1,000 patients, the team helped develop and validate an AI-enabled diagnostic model designed to support pathology review and improve diagnostic consistency.
"This initiative really pushed the entire industry forward."
Using Technology and Continuous Improvement to Advance Healthcare
Innovation does not stop once a medicine has been developed. It also depends on how organizations manage quality, reduce risk and continuously improve the systems that support patients.
Susan Tillman, Head of Data Science and Advanced AI, has worked across medical, IT, manufacturing and digital organizations throughout her career. She has seen how innovation emerges when diverse expertise comes together around a shared challenge.
"Data science and AI is a team sport."
While technology creates new possibilities, Susan believes success depends on how organizations apply it.
"Technology, just to have it, to buy it, that's rather the easy part. But to make it strategically wise, yours, and actually to use it to really help Takeda's purpose, that is the magic."
That same mindset is shaping how quality teams operate. Esther Destratis, Lead for Business Development & Contract Manufacturing Business Quality, helps ensure quality remains embedded throughout the product lifecycle.
One example is Digital Compliance Monitoring (DCM), part of Takeda's Quality Processes of the Future program. DCM uses advanced digital technology to provide real-time oversight, data-driven insights and proactive decision-making across the organization.
"What excites me most about coming to work is the chance to create meaningful impact: on patients, on processes and on people."
Connecting Manufacturing Excellence to Patient Impact
As medicines move closer to patients, innovation takes another form: ensuring products are delivered safely, reliably, and consistently.
For Principal Scientist Karla Morales, innovation in Global Supply & Quality often happens behind the scenes.
"In global manufacturing and supply, innovation often happens behind the scenes, but its impact is front and center for our patients."
Teams work every day to maintain supply continuity, strengthen partnerships and navigate complex operational requirements so patients can continue receiving the medicines they rely on.
For Gert Verheyden, Head of Purification, that patient impact remains the strongest source of motivation.
"We try really to help people."
Through patient testimonials and stories shared on site, teams are reminded of the lives behind the medicines they produce and the difference those medicines can make.
Innovation Connected by Purpose
Across the product journey, innovation takes many forms, from strategic decisions and emerging technologies to quality improvements and manufacturing excellence.
What connects these efforts is a shared commitment to improving outcomes for patients.
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