Kyowa Kirin Designs New North American Headquarters to Accelerate Innovation, Collaboration, Culture

Japan-Based Specialty Pharmaceutical Company Moves Into Princeton, NJ, Offices

PRINCETON, N.J., July 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyowa Kirin, Inc., an affiliate of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Kirin, TSE: 4151), a global specialty pharmaceutical company based in Japan, today announces the completion of its new North America headquarters at 510 Carnegie Center in Princeton, NJ. The new space will host over 300 employees – across various functions that support all phases of the product life cycle including development, commercial and corporate functions – combining teams that used to be split across two New Jersey locations into one space, specially outfitted to foster the company's culture of collaboration and innovation.

"Bringing our teams into one shared location will enable us to work more collaboratively across the lifecycle as we focus on increasing our impact and work for patients and their families," said Kyowa Kirin North America President Steve Schaefer. "We designed the space with employee input, with the goal of creating a space that would suit the needs of a dynamically changing and growing workforce."

A company with a 70-year history, Kyowa Kirin has been steadily growing its market presence in North America since 2018 when it received approval from the U.S. Federal Drug Administration for the first of three first-in-class medicines it now markets in the United States. North America is the company's fastest-growing region in terms of revenue, contributing more than a quarter of Kyowa Kirin's global revenues in 2022, up from 13% in 2019. During that same time, the company nearly doubled its number of North American employees to more than 600. The idea of teamwork/WA, is one of the company's core values and consistently ranked as a top point of distinction with employees when compared to other companies.

The new location is 80,000 square feet and includes more than twice the amount of conferencing and meeting space than the prior NJ facilities. (The company also has a research facility located in La Jolla, CA.)

The space is fully equipped with collaborative, cutting-edge technologies and includes mostly unassigned and communal workstations, so the company can continue to grow and integrate more team members without adding incremental workspaces. The company also adopted a hybrid work schedule with flexibility offered in schedules around personal needs to support changing employee lifestyles.

"From the start to finish, the design has been rooted in the Japanese idea of Wa, which is all about teams that work in sync or harmony. We want an environment that reflects those ideals and maximizes opportunities for each person to get involved and contribute to our success," said Britt Byers, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, North America. "Throughout this two-year project, we regularly engaged employees to get input on design options and workplace policies. We looked at this move as an opportunity to rethink all aspects of our workplace and spur positive changes."

About Kyowa Kirin 
Kyowa Kirin strives to create and deliver novel medicines with life-changing value. As a Japan-based Global Specialty Pharmaceutical Company with a more than 70-year heritage, we apply cutting-edge science including expertise in antibody research and engineering, to address the needs of patients and society across multiple therapeutic areas including Nephrology, Oncology, Immunology/Allergy and Neurology. Across our four regions – Japan, Asia Pacific, North America, and EMEA/International – we focus on our purpose to make people smile, and are united by our shared values of commitment to life, teamwork/Wa, innovation, and integrity. You can learn more about Kyowa Kirin North America at: https://kkna.kyowakirin.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/kyowa-kirin-inc.--u.s./ 

SOURCE Kyowa Kirin