The chief executive of Astellas has ruled out an exit from China after Beijing detained a local executive of the company last month, a move that sent shockwaves through the Japanese business community in the country.In his first public comments since its employee was arrested in late March on espionage charges, Naoki Okamura said Japan’s second-largest pharmaceutical company by revenue planned to take further steps to diversify its supply chain in China, but cautioned against the incident becoming a catalyst to pull back its presence.
“It is true that geopolitical risks are rising,” Okamura said in an interview at the company’s Tokyo headquarters. “Instead of deciding to cut off China, we are preparing for such risks by preparing alternative options [to secure products] and increasing safety stocks.”
“For now, we are not considering an exit from China,” he added, noting that the country’s huge market was “obviously attractive”.