ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today the launch of a joint business with BELLSYSTEM24, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Hiroshi Kajiwara, President, Representative Director; hereinafter "BELLSYSTEM24") tosupport pharmaceutical companies in transforming their marketing activities and streamlining their operations using IT and other digital technologies. BELLSYSTEM24 combines cutting-edge technologies with advanced human resources to implement BPO (business process outsourcing) services with contact centers at its core.

Currently, pharmaceutical companies' activities to provide medical professionals with information are mainly carried out by medical representatives (hereinafter "MRs").^*1 Due to restrictions on visits to medical institutions and the reform of medical professionals' workstyles, the contact between MRs and medical professionals is decreasing. Medical professionals are using digital channels more often to efficiently gather information, yet they still seek information about drugs, including new drugs, from MRs as theytraditionally have.^*2 This has created demand for an information delivering system tailored to their diverse needs.

BELLSYSTEM24 leverages Generative AI and other cutting-edge technologies and encourages companies to utilize the voice of the customer ("VOC") to facilitate business growth andimprove customer satisfaction. In the pharmaceutical sector, the company capitalizes its abundant knowledge and its organizational structure composed of specialists to help pharmaceutical companies provide information efficiently and effectively by centralizing certain MR operations within contact centers.

ITOCHU has built a digital value chain which mainly includes ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (hereinafter "CTC") and BELLSYSTEM24, supporting its customers in their digital transformation (hereinafter "DX"). In the pharmaceutical sector, ITOCHU also focus on expanding the use of IT and other digital technologies by pharmaceutical companies. For example, it supports marketing activities using the doctor database of partner company MRT,^*3 It also provides a health promotion program for corporate employees using the checkup data possessed by Wellness Communications Corporation.^*4

Now, ITOCHU has combined its expertise in marketing and sales, alonog withBELLSYSTEM24's IT, digital technologies, and BPO functions to establish a business that supports the digital transformation (DX) of pharmaceutical companies in the field of marketing. Specifically, ITOCHU leads the upstream domains where corporate marketing and sales issues are solved, and BELLSYSTEM24 is responsible for downstream domains which involve the establishment of an optimal information delivery system using human resources and digital technologies, their application in everyday operations and the evalution of outcomes.Together, we willsupport pharmaceutical companies transform marketing activities and streamline operations, with a focus on enhancing the information provision activities of MRs.

ITOCHU positions the medical and healthcare domain as a key focus area, an develops new services for pharmaceutical companies in Japan and overseas with amarket-oriented perspective to meet the needs of patients, medical professionals, and medical institutions. Going forward, ITOCHU will continue to proactively develop businesses that contribute to the realization of the medical infrastructure needed by society.