Astellas Pharma has announced changes in its top management structure, effective on April 1, 2017 and has formed a division, Pharmaceutical Technology, to manage its contract manufacturing organization (CMO) relationships as part of an overall restructuring of its global functions.

Senior management structure changes include the appointment of Chikashi Takeda as chief financial officer (CFO), who will be taking over the position from Yasumasa Masuda. Mr. Takeda currently serves as corporate vice president, Corporate Finance & Control. Astellas has also appointed Fumiaki Sakurai as chief administrative officer and chief ethics and compliance officer, who will be taking over those roles from Yoshirou Miyokawa. Mr. Sakurai currently serves as corporate vice president, Human Resources.

In addition, Kenji Yasukawa, chief strategy officer, has been given the additional role of chief commercial officer. Yoshihiko Hatanaka will continue as chief executive officer, and Sef Kurstjens will continue as chief medical officer.

As part of the company’s global functions restructure, Astellas has reformed its technology function into a division named Pharmaceutical Technology in order manage its CMO relationships as well as to strengthen global operations and enhance administrative structure.

Global function changes also include the establishment of a new global legal department that will manage regional legal functions. The legal department will be headed by the general counsel, who will report directly to the CEO and also serve as a standing member of the executive committee.

A new intellectual property division will also be established to protect intellectual property and strengthen functional support to internal stakeholders. The head of intellectual property will report directly to the CEO.

Source: Astellas Pharma