New president and CEO at Astellas Pharma Europe and in USA; Ex-Genzyme CEO joins AVEO board

Astellas Pharma Europe (APEL), the European subsidiary of Tokyo-based Astellas (TSE: 4503) has announced the promotion of Ken Jones to president and chief executive.

Mr Jones, who since July 2007 has held the position of chief operating officer at APEL, replaces Masao Yoshida, who has been appointed as president and CEO of Astellas Pharma US, the group’s US subsidiary.

In 2009-10, a challenging time for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, APEL achieved 1.4 billion euros ($2.02 billion) in sales, representing growth of 9% against the previous year’s 1.3 billion euros and expected to rise to 1.5 billion euros (+10%) in the fiscal year 2010/11 forecast. As Mr Jones takes up leadership, APEL is well positioned to achieve the goals defined in its mid-term strategy: reinforcement of category leadership in transplantation and urology; franchise expansion in pain management, anti-infectives and oncology, and the delivery of treatments in areas where unmet medical needs still exist, the company stated.