Astellas Announces Leadership Promotions in Development Organization

Astellas announced three senior-level promotions within its Development organization. Joseph Fleishaker, Ph.D., FAAPS, FCP, was promoted to senior vice president and Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Exploratory Development (CPED); Susanne Gronen was promoted to senior vice president and Head of Data Sciences; and, Andrew Krivoshik, M.D., Ph.D., was promoted to vice president of Medical Science, Oncology.

"These promotions reinforce the strength of talent we have across the development organization at Astellas," Bernhardt G. Zeiher, M.D., president, Development, Astellas said. "I couldn't be more pleased that Joe, Susanne and Andrew will be leading critical parts of our global organization so we can deliver valuable medicines to patients."

In his new role, Fleishaker will report directly to Zeiher and be responsible for providing leadership of the clinical pharmacology and early development work across the global development portfolio. Gronen will also report directly to Zeiher and provide global leadership of the Data Sciences function, which includes biostatistics, data management, medical writing, statistical programming, and systems management. Krivoshik will report directly to Steven Benner, M.D., senior vice president and Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology. He will lead the medical group within the Oncology therapeutic area and be chiefly responsible for helping to advance Astellas' promising oncology pipeline, which includes numerous clinical programs in areas such as prostate cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, bladder cancer, breast cancer, and gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, among others.

Fleishaker received a doctorate degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor degree in pharmacy from Duquesne University. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 original research articles, review articles and book chapters and is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. He currently chairs both the Board of Trustees of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the External Advisory Board of the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, and has been a member of the Corporate Advisory Board for the University of Washington College of Pharmacy.

Gronen has been with Astellas – and Yamanouchi, one of the original founding companies that merged to create Astellas - for more than 16 years. She received a master degree in statistics from the University of Dortmund in Germany and a certificate in pharmaceutical medicine from Basel University in Switzerland.

Krivoshik previously served as an executive medical director in the Oncology therapeutic area at Astellas. He holds a bachelor degree in electrical engineering with honors from Princeton University, a medical degree from the University of Illinois (UIC) College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign, and a doctorate in biophysics and computational biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his clinical internship and residency training in pediatric and adolescent medicine at Mayo Clinic, and clinical pediatric hematology and oncology fellowship training at Duke University.