Yoshitsugu Shitaka's Biography

Yoshitsugu Shitaka, President, Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Yoshitsugu Shitaka, Ph.D., has been Corporate Executive of Astellas Pharma Inc. since June 2018 and has been President of Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AIRM), which was established following Astellas’ acquisition of Ocata Therapeutics, since May 2016. Prior to that, Dr. Shitaka served as Head of New Product Science Strategy, Product & Portfolio Strategy at Astellas Pharma Inc. in 2015. He served as Therapeutic Area Head, Frontier Disease Research Unit, Drug Discovery Research from 2012 to 2015. He joined Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical, Co., Ltd. (Yamanouchi became a part of Astellas Pharma Inc. in April 2005) in 1996 where he held scientific and management positions of increasing responsibility in Neuroscience, Drug Discovery Research until 2012. He was Visiting Scientist of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from 2009 to 2010. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tokyo in 1991, 1993, and 1996, respectively. He has been Vice Chairman of Forum for Innovative Regenerative Medicine (FIRM) since June 2018.