Astellas

Astellas is a pharmaceutical company which employs 16,000 people globally. Its European headquarters coordinates Astellas Europe, which employs 4,200 people in Europe and South Africa across Sales and Marketing, Research & Development (R&D), and Manufacturing is focused on six key therapy areas: Transplantation, Urology, Oncology, Dermatology, Anti-infectives, and Pain Management. Astellas Ireland is responsible for the Sales and Marketing of products in Ireland and is a registered member of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association. Founded by Klinge in the 1970s, the Irish company was more recently established as Astellas following the merger of Fujisawa and Yamanouchi in 2005. Astellas has two plants in Ireland which are based in Kerry and Dublin. The Kerry Plant formulates an immunosuppressant called Prograf which is used to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. Worldwide distribution is from Killorglin. Protopic (tacrolimus ointment) indicated for patients suffering from moderate to severe atopic dermatitis is packaged in Killorglin and distributed to the European market.