Astellas is preparing a significant shake-up of its top-tier roles, including transforming its chief medical officer into a new R&D position and ushering out its current chief scientific officer and chief manufacturing officer.
The Japanese pharma, which announced the moves to coincide with its third-quarter earnings, said the management changes coming in from April 1 are designed to “promote drug discovery activities swiftly and efficiently from the early stages of research through to commercialization with patient-centric approach.”
They will see current Chief Medical Officer Tadaaki Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D., moved to a newly created position of chief research and development officer. The role will oversee the integration of the pharma’s research and development teams in order to “provide the next-generation groundbreaking therapies from Astellas,” the company explained.
Chief Scientific Officer Yoshitsugu Shitaka, Ph.D., won’t be so lucky. Astellas intends to create the new role of chief commercial and medical affairs officer (CCMAO), which will “integrate the current Commercial and Medical Affairs functions while maintaining the independence of each function.”
It means Astellas no longer has need for a specific CSO role. With Chief Commercial Officer Claus Zieler set to take up the CCMAO position, current CSO Shitaka is resigning at the end of March.
Astella’s current chief manufacturing officer Hideki Shima will suffer a similar fate. While that manufacturing role isn’t being changed, Shima will be resigning at the end of March to make way for Rao Mantri, Ph.D., who joined the company yesterday. Mantri has “extensive experience in a global pharmaceutical company, focusing on innovation in product development, manufacturing, and supply, as well as being involved in management,” Astellas said to explain the move.
The final C-suite executive to be shown the door is General Counsel Catherine Levitt. With the general counsel and the ethics and compliance responsibilities set to be combined, Levitt is resigning in favor of current Head of Ethics and Compliance Tatjana Dragovic.
Astellas saw revenue for the first nine months of its 2024 financial year rise 22.2% year over year, the pharma also reported this morning. The Tokyo-based company attributed the change to sales of prostate cancer drug Xtandi, urothelial cancer therapy Padcev and leukemia drug Xospata. The recent launches of menopause therapy Veozah and eye infection Izervay also helped, Astellas added.
The earnings documents (PDF) also referred to the removal from the company's pipeline of ASP2016. The gene therapy had been undergoing a phase 1 study in patients with cardiomyopathy associated with Friedreich ataxia.