Biogen, Inc. (NASDAQ/BGEN) today announced the appointment of Toshio Nakata, D.Sc., as President, Biogen Japan Ltd. and Vice President, Biogen, Inc., a new position. Dr. Nakata will supervise the establishment of Biogen’s development and commercial operations in Japan. He reports to James C. Mullen, Biogen’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Nakata will be located in Tokyo.
Mr. Mullen said, “We believe that Biogen’s aggressive global strategy is unique in the biopharmaceutical industry. We are committed to building value by marketing our products directly in the world’s most important pharmaceutical markets, the U.S., Europe and Japan. These three markets account for more than 90 percent of sales of all high-technology based pharmaceutical products. Biogen has already established an extremely broad range of country operations, with direct operations in the U.S., Canada, 13 European countries and now Japan. Our Japanese organization will give us important new development and commercial resources, both for the introduction of AMEVIVE™ (alefacept) and our next generation of drugs.”
Dr. Nakata, 58, joins Biogen following a 26-year career with Mitsui, Ltd., where he most recently served as Associate Director and General Manager, Global Environment Department, Corporate Planning Division. During much of his career with Mitsui, Dr. Nakata specialized in new-business development at a corporate level, with an emphasis on advanced technologies. He held a number of general management assignments in Tokyo, London and Dusseldorf, Germany. In the 1980s, Dr. Nakata took leadership at Mitsui in introducing Biogen to Japan and in helping Biogen to conclude many research and development contracts on potential biopharmaceuticals with major Japanese pharmaceutical development companies.
Dr. Nakata received B.Sc., M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from The University of Tokyo. In 1970-1971, Dr. Nakata was a postdoctoral fellow at The University of California at San Francisco. From 1971-1974, he was an Assistant in the laboratory of Professor Tatsuo Miyazawa, in the Department of Biochemistry at Faculty of Science, The University of Tokyo.
Biogen, Inc., winner of the U.S. National Medal of Technology, is a biopharmaceutical company principally engaged in discovering and developing drugs for human healthcare through genetic engineering. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the Company’s revenues are generated from international sales of AVONEX® (Interferon beta-1a) for treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, and from the worldwide sales by licensees of a number of products, including alpha interferon and hepatitis B vaccines and diagnostic products ( Prescribing Information ). Biogen’s research and development activities are focused on novel products to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases, cancer, fibrosis and congestive heart failure. The Company maintains active clinical research programs in protein therapeutics, small molecules, genomics and gene therapy. For copies of press releases and additional information about the Company, please consult Biogen’s Homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.biogen.com.