Corporate Management Information - Takeshita
Ken Takeshita, MD
As Global Head of Research & Development for Daiichi Sankyo, Ken is responsible for leading the organization’s global clinical development strategy – serving as chair of the Global R&D Leadership Team (GRDLT) and the Global Portfolio and Asset Decision Committee (G-PAD). Ken and his teams oversee the R&D organization in the Americas, Europe, Japan, Asia and South & Central America to successfully deliver on the advancement of the global oncology pipeline.
Prior to joining Daiichi Sankyo, Ken had extensive R&D and clinical experience, mostly recently serving as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Development, and interim Head of Research, with Kite Pharma (now part of Gilead Sciences). Ken also served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Research at Sorrento Therapeutics. He has led full-scale development programs across solid tumors and blood cancers at Celgene Corporation and Amgen, including over a decade at Celgene as corporate Vice President of Clinical Research and Development, leading and overseeing global phase 1-3 trials for registration in hematologic malignancies.
Before joining the biotechnology field, Ken was on the faculty in Hematology at Yale University School of Medicine and New York University School of Medicine. Ken earned a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from Harvard University and his MD from Yale University. He received post-doctoral training in hematology, oncology and developmental biology at Yale and in hematopoiesis at University of Tokyo.
Having practiced medicine as a physician and running independent research programs at Yale and then NYU, Ken is driven by his first-hand experience with patient care from the physician perspective.