On 18 December 2019, our new EUROIMMUN subsidiary in Japan was officially founded after one year of hard work, intensive planning and structuring.
Head of this new subsidiary is Cagla Egretaud, who has been working at EUROIMMUN for 20 years. The idea to jointly establish a new subsidiary in Japan, one of the world’s largest diagnostic markets, first came up soon after Caglas joined the company. Cagla had been living in Japan previously. There, she had also met for the first time Prof. Dr. Winfried Stöcker, founder of EUROIMMUN, and Dr. Wolfgang Schlumberger, chairmen of the Board, at a trade fair.
However, as an entry into the Japanese market was rather difficult at that time, cooperation with the local distributor Cosmic was promoted instead of establishing a new subsidiary. Many years later, the right moment had finally come to start the subsidiary project in Japan. Cagla was immediately willing to take on the new challenge and relocate to Tokyo. While Cosmic continues to provide their regular customers with a selected EUROIMMUN product range, EUROIMMUN Japan Co., Ltd. is starting to build up a new customer base.
EUROIMMUN Japan Co., Ltd. currently has four employees. At present, the team’s main job is to apply for all the licences that are required and to pay first visits to clinics, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and potential distributors. Their aim is to push forwards to the top of the Japanese diagnostic industry.
“We are aware of the difficulties that occur with IVD registration and the tough competition in this sector. This means that we have to be very creative and determined with regard to our sales methods and marketing,” Cagla says.
There will still be lots to do for Cagla and her team, but the first steps have been taken and there is no lack of motivation or determination to tackle all the challenges that the future will bring.