26 February 2013 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
Dr Takeshi Yura - Promoted to the position of VP, discovery and development services, Asia, AMRI
Singapore: Dr Takeshi Yura has been promoted by AMRI to the position of vice president of discovery and development services, Asia. Dr Yura will report directly to Dr Thomas E. D'Ambra, chairman, president and CEO, AMRI.
Dr Yura joined AMRI in January 2011 and most recently served as senior director of drug discovery services in Singapore, leading the chemistry and biology teams of AMRI's flagship Asian integrated drug discovery operations. Effective immediately, Dr Yura also assumed leadership of AMRI's discovery and development efforts at AMRI's Hyderabad (India) site.
Dr Yura obtained a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Tokyo, working with Professor Teruaki Mukaiyama until his retirement and with Professor Koichi Narasaka . He also holds an M.B.A. from the Temple University Tokyo. Dr Yura brings to this role more than 22 years of scientific and leadership experience in discovery research, project management and business development.
Before joining AMRI, he was a director at Dishman Japan (responsible for sales and all business development activities for contract manufacturing services), Pfizer Japan (served as discovery chemistry research head dedicated primarily to the areas of pain and gastrointestinal drug discovery), Bayer Yakuhin in Japan (served as section head, medicinal chemistry focused on urology and asthma), Ciba Geigy Japan and Tanabe Seiyaku.
Dr D'Ambra said, "AMRI's Singapore and Hyderabad operations are important and growing businesses for AMRI and conduct projects for customers located all over the world. With the ongoing evolution of outsourcing and a growing focus from customers on strategic relationships, we believe that Dr Yura's leadership, his focus on excellence in scientific research and his dedication to quality and the integrity of our customers' intellectual property will provide integration under one leadership of what we are referring to as AMRI Asia."