The partnership will help Astellas reduce drug development timelines and healthcare costs, said the companies
Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma has selected Verizon Business to manage its global network infrastructure. The advanced network management solutions should help the company reduce drug development timelines and healthcare costs, as well as take advantage of new revenue opportunities, said the companies.
Because Astellas has more than 70 locations around the world, which equates to tens of thousands of devices and endpoints that must be managed, the scalability and predictability of any network solution was paramount, said the company.
“From R&D to sales, we are seeing enormous amounts of data and intelligence flow through our business,” commented Shinya Suda, senior vice president of information systems at Astellas. “We want to ensure that we have a future-proof network in order to utilize cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and robotics to make data-driven decisions to deliver better value for our patients. Our network transformation will underpin the next phase of our growth.”
Verizon will work with the Astellas to build upon the company’s existing network-as-a-service foundation and its private network and mobile edge compute solutions. Specifically, the carrier will assist in the build and deployment of Astellas’ global integrated network by providing several managed services, including Managed Wide Area Network, Local Area Network, Managed Security Services(MSS), Secure Gateway, Zero Trust Network Access and Unified Communications and Collaboration as a Service.
“The network is transformative in its ability to enable innovation and growth and Astellas is changing the way they are using the tools at their disposal to completely revolutionize their business. This is truly a watershed moment for the pharmaceutical industry as companies grapple with the pressures of reducing time and costs for the development of drugs while improving patient care and value. We’re proud to have been a part of Astellas’ growth journey for more than a decade,” said Robert Le Busque, regional vice president of Verizon Business Group, Asia Pacific.
The pair have worked together before, when Verizon in 2016 provided the pharma company with its Secure Cloud Interconnect (SCI), which delivered a high-bandwidth connection to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud services.
At the time of the first announcement, Yasunori Yakabe, the associate director of Astellas IT infrastructure & communications unit, commented: “Our focus is no longer on supporting fundamental business connectivity, but rather on deploying strategic solutions that are going to support our future business growth.”
