TOKYO, April 21, 2022 -- Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519) and Snowflake announce that Chugai has adopted the Snowflake Data Cloud, a data cloud platform provided by Snowflake.

The Snowflake Data Cloud is a cloud-based data platform that ensures data governance and security and allows use of the latest data across divisions and projects. Chugai will drive innovation by accelerating company-wide use of data owned by each function and division.

The pharmaceutical industry handles an enormous amount of complex data in the whole value chain from research and development through marketing of pharmaceutical products. The significant challenge is to build an environment for unifying and allowing mutual use of internal data to accelerate innovation. Chugai is driving integration and use of data owned by divisions and projects with “strengthen the digital platform” as one of the basic strategies of DX strategy CHUGAI DIGITAL VISION 2030. To enhance and accelerate the creation of innovative new drugs, the company including the Research Division needed to adapt to a safe and speedy analytics environment for a large amount of sensitive data. A platform that integrates data across organizations was also needed to further improve delivery of information to healthcare providers.

Snowflake offers the Data Cloud to help companies and organizations accumulate, analyze, and use a large amount of internal and external data efficiently. Chugai chose Snowflake as its preferred data platform. Snowflake enables Chugai to mobilize their data with Snowflake’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Data Cloud to unite siloed data, discover and securely share data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. In addition, Snowflake’s connectivity that does not rely on a single public cloud enables safe, secure and efficient access, which is another reason why Chugai selected Snowflake.

Chugai will integrate the data owned by departments and projects on the Snowflake Data Cloud and connect it with Chugai’s own digital-IT platform Chugai Scientific Infrastructure (CSI) to develop company-wide analytics environment. This is expected to strengthen data governance and reduce security risks and costs. At the drug discovery function, it is expected to help maximize data value and improve productivity including accelerated evaluation of pharmaceutical candidates by simulation based on a large amount of reliable experimental data and hypotheses, and cross-modality analyses. At the value delivery function, Chugai aims to advance an innovative customer engagement model to deliver value that customers need through optimal communication. The company will integrate and use the internal data for predicting effectiveness and safety to create unique evidence contributing to personalized medicine.

This announcement represents the first case in Japan for Snowflake in healthcare and life sciences. It is meaningful that Snowflake has been selected as a data integration platform for Chugai, a research-based pharmaceutical company with world-class drug discovery capabilities, including proprietary antibody engineering technologies. In healthcare and life sciences, there are demanding requirements including the highest level of data security and governance. Snowflake offers the Data Cloud to help providers optimize care delivery, enhance clinical and operational decision making, and accelerate clinical research and time-to-market. Building on its global track record, Snowflake will bring its experience, knowhow, and enterprise-grade support to Japan.

[Comments]

Pharmaceutical companies have the common challenge of building an environment that allows use of internal data to further accelerate innovation. By connecting the Snowflake Data Cloud, which allows unified data management, and CSI, our own digital-IT platform, we can create an environment for safety and speedy analyses of enormous data. With “strengthen the digital platform” as one of the basic strategies of our CHUGAI DIGITAL VISION 2030, we will accelerate use of internal data across the company, including drug discovery and value delivery function.

Satoko Shisai, Executive Vice President, Head of Digital Transformation Unit, Chugai

We are excited to announce the first deployment case in the healthcare and life science field in Japan. We are very honored to offer our Data Cloud to Chugai, a leading healthcare company in Japan. Snowflake helps Chugai drive healthcare innovation and deliver even stronger outcome for patients and all stakeholders.

Hidetoshi Tojo, Managing Director of Japan, Snowflake

About Chugai Pharmaceutical
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, is a research-based pharmaceutical company with world-class drug discovery capabilities, including proprietary antibody engineering technologies. Chugai is committed to creating innovative pharmaceutical products which may satisfy unmet medical needs. Chugai is listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. While maintaining autonomy and management independence, Chugai is an important member of the Roche Group. Additional information is available at https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/.

About Snowflake
Snowflake enables every organization to mobilize their data with Snowflake’s Data Cloud. Customers use the Data Cloud to unite siloed data, discover and securely share data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single data experience that spans multiple clouds and geographies. Thousands of customers across many industries, including 241 of the 2021 Fortune 500 and 488 of the 2021 Forbes Global 2000 (G2K) as of January 31, 2022, use Snowflake Data Cloud to power their businesses. Learn more at snowflake.com.