Kouichi Akahane, Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Kouichi Akahane joined U3 Pharma as the Chief Executive Officer in September 2008. Dr. Akahane brings in almost 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with most of his career dedicated to discovery research as well as strategic management in R&D. Dr. Akahane received his PhD degree from the University of Tokyo and MBA degree from Temple University.

Dr. Akahane led the Cancer Research Laboratory in Daiichi after working at the Division of Cytokine Biology, CBER FDA. During the merger with Sankyo, he served as a co-leader of the Global R&D Integration Task Force.
Dr. Akahane joined Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development in New Jersey in 2007 as the vice-president of R&D strategy and alliance management and also managed a group for pursuing in-licensing opportunities in the US to promote global activity in external excellence at Daiichi Sankyo.

Johannes Bange, Managing Director

Dr. Johannes Bange studied Chemistry at the Julius-Maximilans University in Würzburg, Germany and Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany and graduated in the field of Proteinchemistry. Working as a scientific assistant at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, he earned his Doctor´s degree for work in the field of Molecular Biology and Oncogenomics.

In 2001 he joined the founding team of U3 Pharma and has been with the company since. First being dedicated to the development of therapeutic antibodies, Dr. Bange shifted his focus to industrial and intellectual property management and became European Patent Attorney in 2008. Dr. Johannes Bange was deeply involved in the acquisition of U3 Pharma by Daiichi Sankyo and was appointed Managing Director of U3 Pharma in March 2009.