Kracie

Inspiration I felt while visiting retailers as sales staff, sparked the development of this product. Consumers' shopping behaviors at drug stores are quite different from those at other sales channels. They enjoy strolling around aisles to choose what to buy. I wanted to place Kampo medicines along the line of such consumer traffic. This is why the packaging highlights the benefits on the front, and is designed with an accessible feel. Japan's traditional colors are featured to encourage shoppers to pick it up from store shelves. The idea was to make Kampo medicines, which were traditionally locked away in a medicine cabinet, into something that people can casually use in the daily course of life, much the same way as dietary supplements.

"Sincerity" and "gentleness" are the mentality we embrace in developing new products. This mentality has taken root in each and every employee as part of our corporate culture.

When a hospital prescribes medicine, patients are given no choice. However, previous prescription Kampo preparation were never developed from the perspective of dose compliance on the part of patients. Given this, we conducted an online survey on patients, and reflected the findings in a major packaging overhaul for the "KB Stick series" of Kampo medicines. The wide sachet format, which was difficult to handle, has been changed to a stick-type shape. The new packaging also facilitates twice-daily administration. Detailed attention has been also paid in the packaging designs and colors to prevent patients from incorrectly taking doses.

I want to develop more pharmaceutical products that contribute to increasing patient dose compliance, because nothing makes me happier than hearing how a customer has overcome a condition thanks to our Kampo medicine.

The growing public interest in the Metabolic Syndrome has highlighted the benefits of Bofutsushosan. "Coccoapo" contains this popular Kampo preparation. The product was initially introduced to address subcutaneous fat, but has been developed as a brand that has two appealing points on subcutaneous fat and on constipation, in response to customer feedback on how it seems to have kept them regular and feeling better in general. We are working to enhance the effectiveness of our products through improving crude plant materials, adopting a better manufacturing method and increasing the amount of Kampo extract.

Our strengths are the wide range of Kampo medicines and their high quality. More effort should be made to inform consumers of the excellent quality each of our products offer, because once consumers realize this, they would not need to look any further.