SATSUMA PHARMACEUTICALS - Key Persons
Akihisa Mori, Ph.D., was appointed a member of the Board of Directors and R&D Head of SNLD Ltd., right after he joined the company in October 2022. Prior to joining SNLD Ltd., Dr. Mori was employed by Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. from April 1985 to March 2022, most recently as a Fellow. At Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd., he began his career as a neuroscientist in the research lab and then transitioned into clinical development and global project leadership, serving in its US offices between 2008 and 2010 in Princeton, NJ, working on global portfolio strategy and global medical affairs. He has been specialized entirely in Parkinson's disease and the neurology area, achieving marketing approval of a first-in class antiparkinsonian product in the US and Japan. Dr. Mori received a B.S. from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kyoto University and holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Manufacturing Operations
Dave joined Satsuma in 2019 and currently serves as Vice President of Manufacturing Operations. Dave has over 20 years of drug/device combination product manufacturing and packaging experience with roles in Engineering, Validation, Quality and Operations Management. Dave began his career with Procter & Gamble, followed by GlaxoSmithKline and Pearl Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca). Dave received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech, and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Cincinnati's Lindner College of Business.
Ken Takanashi, MBA, CPA, was appointed Senior Executive Vice President of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. in June 2017. Mr.Takanashi joined Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd., in December 2002 as Executive Director. Prior to joining Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd., Mr. Takanashi was employed by Suasa Kristal (M) Bhd. from December 1996 to December 2002, most recently as Executive Director and General Manager. He also served as Business Development Manager for Mitsubishi Corporation from April 1987 to November 1996. Mr. Takanashi also currently serves on the board of directors of Wave Life Sciences, Ltd., and TMS Co., Ltd., public biopharmaceutical companies, as well as on the board of directors of several private companies. Mr. Takanashi is a Chartered Public Accountant in Delaware. Mr. Takanashi received a B.A. from The University of Tokyo, and an M.B.A. from The University of Warwick, Coventry U.K.
Job Titles:
- Head of Operations
- Vice President
Mic was intimately involved in founding and spinning out Satsuma from Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, and he has served as Vice President & Head of Operations since then. Mic has more than 15 years of experience in the field of nasal drug delivery and was involved in developing the technologies incorporated in Satsuma's lead product candidate, STS101, as well as in preclinical development, early clinical evaluation and CMC development of multiple nasal-route, drug-device combination product candidates. Prior to joining Satsuma, Mic served in a variety of management roles at Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, encompassing operations, product development, quality, regulatory affairs, business development and intellectual property management. Mic received a B.S.E. degree in engineering from North Carolina State University, where he also did research in the area of computational fluid dynamics of nasal airflow.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President and Head of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls
Rob joined Satsuma in 2017 and currently serves as our Senior Vice President and Head of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC). He has over 32 years of drug development experience, focused primarily on the CMC development of orally inhaled products, including VENTOLIN® inhaler and ADVAIR® metered dose inhaler (MDI) products. Rob began his career developing MDIs at Muro Pharmaceuticals (acquired by ASTA Medica). He then joined GlaxoSmithKline, followed by KOS Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Abbott). In these companies, he led CMC development initiatives for multiple inhalation products, including ADVAIR®, Serevent®, Flovent®, Ventolin®, Azmacort® and an insulin MDI product, while advancing into roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to joining Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Rob was an early member of the senior leadership team at Pearl Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca), where he led CMC and global project teams developing Pearl's MDI products, including Bevespi Aerosphere® and Pearl's triple combination product Breztri®. Rob received a B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Board Director
- CEO
- President
Ryoichi Nagata, M.D., Ph.D., FFPM is the Chairman and President of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd., Chairman of Medipolis Proton Therapy and Research Center, Chairman of Veritas Academy, and Honorary Consul-General of the Royal Government of Bhutan in Japan. He obtained MD from School of Medicine at St. Marianna University, PhD from Graduate School of Medicine at Kagoshima University, and MA from Graduate School of Buddhism at Koyasan University. He also serves as a member of board of directors for St. Marianna Univ., Juntendo Univ., The Japan China Medical Association, and Japanese Society of Preventive Medicine. Visiting Professor of St. Marianna University, Tokyo Medical University, Kochi University, Yantai University (China), and University of Maryland, Baltimore. He is qualified to be an Instructor for Clinical Pharmacologists of The Japanese Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Instructor for Japanese Society of Preventive Medicine, Certified Toxicologist of The Japanese Society of Toxicology, and Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (FFPM, UK).
Job Titles:
- Vice President & Head of Regulatory Affairs
Shannon has served as our Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality since 2018. Shannon has over 20 years of research and drug development experience with over 15 years as a leader in regulatory affairs. Shannon began her career through a drug development fellowship with Cato Research, a specialty contract research organization, and then transitioned into medical writing and regulatory affairs specializing in neurology and oncology product development from nonclinical studies through marketing approval. In 2010, Shannon moved to Pearl Therapeutics to focus on inhaled respiratory drug products, drug-device combination products, and product development through the US 505(b)(2) approval pathway. In addition to her regulatory leadership at Pearl, Shannon provided key inputs to Pearl's nonclinical and clinical programs. Pearl Therapeutics received the FierceBiotech 2011 Fierce 15 award and was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2013 for $1.15 billion. Shannon has led global regulatory strategy programs including regulatory health authority interactions and approval of multiple new drug applications, including most recently approvals of Bevespi Aerosphere® and Breztri®. Shannon received a B.S. in biology from Duke University and holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Shu-Ichi Kanazashi, Ph.D., M.D., was elected the Managing Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer of SNBL in June 2016. He has served as TR Company President since 2014 and as the director of SNLD Inc. since 2019. Prior to joining SNBL, Dr. Kanazashi was the Chief Executive Officer of UMN Pharma Inc. (Tokyo and Connecticut, US, 2006). Previously, he was employed by Nippon Roche K.K. (Tokyo and Basel, CH, 2000) and Sony Corporation (Tokyo and Oxford, UK, 2002) as the Medical Scientist, where he engaged in research and development of recombinant Flu vaccines and "Tamiflu", as well as genomic SNP detection followed by DNA chip production.
As a diplomate of the Japan Pediatric Society and the Japanese Society of Allergology, he was engaged in clinical practice at various hospitals in Japan and accumulated abundant clinical experience. Dr. Kanazashi received his M.D. in 1986 from Kyoto University and in 1994 he received his Ph.D. degree in Medical Science from the Graduate School of Kyoto University. He completed his research fellowship at Harvard Medical School/ Massachusetts General Hospital from 1995 to 1998.
Shunji Haruta, Ph.D., was appointed TR Company Vice President in April 2019, and he has been a Corporate Officer and a General Manager of the Company since January 2011. Dr. Haruta also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of SNLD Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories. Dr. Haruta joined Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. in April 2001, to develop the proprietary nasal drug delivery technology which was the first project in SNBL's translation research business. Dr. Haruta has contributed as an inventor creating numerous patents related to nasal drug delivery technology. New business based on the nasal drug delivery technology has steadily progressed by his dedicated efforts for over 20 years and as a result four instances of technology out-licensing have been achieved, so far. Prior to joining Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd., Dr. Haruta accumulated clinical experience as a clinical pharmacist at Miyazaki Medical College. Dr. Haruta received his Ph.D. degree from the Faculty of Pharmaceuticals Sciences at Okayama University.