About

Astellas was founded in 2005 through the merger of Yamanouchi and Fujisawa, combining nearly two centuries of collective experience to create an international pharmaceutical company with innovation for patients at its heart. The company’s Spanish affiliate is based in Madrid and its legal department is part of the EMEA legal team, a matrix organisation with lawyers and legal professionals based in locations across Europe working as a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural team combining a wealth of expertise and experience which enables it to offer a full range of legal and IP support to the business. The legal team in Spain is made up of three lawyers and is led by associate director, Helena Zamora, who joined Astellas in June 2017. Rosa Gonzalez is also part of the legal team and is described by Zamora as a, ‘a young lawyer providing expert legal services and training to the business clients’, before adding that ‘both lawyers relentlessly focus on offering solutions oriented and forward looking legal support’. According to Zamora: ‘The legal department’s mission statement is to contribute to the sustained success of the business by minimising legal and regulatory risk by supporting our clients with timely, proactive, risk balanced and collaborative legal advice’. This has meant guiding the business colleagues through the maze of legal requirements and enhancing their skills through engaging training, while also supporting the strategic goals by developing operational solutions which help the business to achieve its goals in a compliant manner. ‘The legal team invests a lot in training and issuing guidance that elevates the knowledge levels in a continuous learning curve’, explains Zamora. Astellas has a string CSR programmes and supports many local charitable projects. The global legal department demonstrates its sense of community through its “LegalCares” programme where the lawyer and paralegal take part in pro bono work, legal walks ad runs for charitable causes related to therapy areas and have an annual LegalCares day working for charitable causes.