Singapore: With a view to streamline operations and speed up new drug launches, Japan's Mitsubishi Tanabe pharma recently announced plans to revamp and reorganize its three drug development-related divisions by October this year.

The company plans to reorganize its three divisions - basic research, clinical trials and quality control -into two divisions. Of the two, the drug development division will be responsible for development processes up until an early clinical trial phase, while the drug strategy division will be in charge of late clinical testing through to an early stage of market launch.

The Japan Times further reported that Mitsubishi's drug development division will be based in Tokyo and the drug strategy division will be headquartered in Osaka.