Daiichi Sankyo to promote Okuzawa to CEO
Plus: New chair at Outlook and an update from Elevation
For the second time this week, a Japanese pharma has announced a change at the top. Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4568) said Friday that President and COO Hiroyuki Okuzawa, a 39-year veteran of the company, will ascend to the CEO role on April 1. He will succeed Sunao Manabe, who will become executive chairman.
Under Manabe’s leadership, Daiichi has made antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) a key pillar of its business, leading to a deal with Astrazeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NASDAQ:AZN) and another with Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK). Under the AZ agreement, the partners now market Enhertu trastuzumab deruxtecan and Datroway datopotamab deruxtecan. Daiichi’s shares closed Friday in Tokyo at ¥4,277, about 2.5x their value before the March 2019 deal with Astrazeneca...