Julie Kim:

Julie Flygare is a remarkable woman. 

She speaks with courage and honesty about her journey with narcolepsy type 1. 

Her passion and drive to advocate for the sleep disorders community has left a deep impact on many lives.  

When I met Julie about a year ago, I was particularly struck by her resilience.  

Listening to her share her daily schedule clearly illustrated what it means to design your life around the realities of a chronic condition - in her case, making the most of the five or six “good” hours she can manage each day.  

She explained how she often sets aside what she might want to do to accomplish what she must do.  

That conversation left a lasting impression, prompting me to reflect on important questions: 

What could it mean for Julie – or people like her who design their days around their disease – to get more “good” hours in a day, a week or a year?  

How might that unlock new moments of connection, creativity or simple joy?  

And what role can Takeda play to transform patients’ experiences by creating solutions that return (or add) some of that precious time? 

As we embark on Takeda’s next era, we are more committed than ever to deliver on our generational promise to make our world healthier for patients, like Julie.   

As CEO-Elect, I am excited to lead us into the future, grounded in our values and guided by our purpose to create better health for people and a brighter future for the world.  

In this year’s Shareholder Letter, I’m excited to share updates on Takeda’s progress to-date, where we’re going in the future, and more importantly, how we’re going to get there.  

Our journey will be defined by two horizons – one that will require us to transform our organization and build our growth engine for the future, which will set us up for the second horizon, which is about accelerating our growth and expanding our impact.  

This journey will require us to be courageous, bold and disciplined while we hold steadfast to our values. 

I am confident that these steps will move us into a period of growth to deliver an even greater impact for patients and society.  

Thank you for your continued support and confidence as we complete the CEO transition and continue to lead with a generational promise to create a healthier world.