Dr. Norio Komatsu Appointed as a Chairperson of PharmaEssentia Japan

By: PharmaEssentia Corporation via Business Wire

April 21, 2021 at 08:00 AM EDT

Renowned expert in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) research joins to guide development efforts and accelerate progress for patient community

PharmaEssentia Corporation (TPEx: 6446), a global biopharmaceutical innovator leveraging deep expertise and proven scientific principles to deliver new biologics in hematology and oncology, has announced the appointment of Dr. Norio Komatsu, a renowned expert in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) research in Japan, as Chairperson and Executive Director of the Company’s Japanese subsidiary.

“We welcome Dr. Komatsu as the Chairperson and Executive Director of our Japan operation as we are actively engaged in full-scale business development in Japan,” said Ko-Chung Lin, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer for PharmaEssentia Corporation. “With his distinctive expertise leading discovery efforts to advance care for people with MPNs, Dr. Komatsu will introduce valuable new perspectives and insights to guide our efforts to continue to support this community with innovative new solutions.”

“As a physician, I have been directly involved in the medical care of patients suffering from diseases such as polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia. I look forward to leading the PharmaEssentia Japan team to contribute to patient care in Japan,” said Dr. Komatsu. “We recognize that there is an opportunity to do more with clinical research to extend beyond a focus on prevention of thrombosis and move toward reducing progression of the disease itself, and I believe PharmaEssentia has an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to this goal.”

Dr. Komatsu is a former professor and Chairman of the Department of Hematology at the Juntendo University School of Medicine. He also previously taught at the Yamanashi University School of Medicine as a professor and the Jichi Medical University as an associate professor. He is a member of the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine and the Japanese Medical Association and served as the President of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Hematology (JSH) in 2019. He is also an active member of the American Society of Hematology and the European Hematology Association. He has been recognized for his contributions to MPN research, with receipt o the Erwin von Balz Prize in 2019 and the 9th JSH Award in 2020. Dr. Komatsu graduated from Niigata University School of Medicine and completed his clinical research fellowship at Jichi Medical University.

About PharmaEssentia

PharmaEssentia Corporation (TPEx: 6446) is a rapidly growing biopharmaceutical innovator. Leveraging deep expertise and proven scientific principles, the company aims to deliver effective new biologics for challenging diseases in the areas of hematology and oncology, with one product already approved in Europe and a diversifying pipeline. Founded in 2003 by a team of Taiwanese-American executives and renowned scientists from U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, today the company is expanding its global presence with operations in the U.S., Japan, China, and Korea, along with a world-class biologics production facility in Taichung.

About PharmaEssentia Japan KK

PharmaEssentia Japan KK was established in 2017 as a Japanese subsidiary of PharmaEssentia Corporation, headquartered in Taipei. The recent rapid development of drug discovery technologies has generated a number of innovative novel therapeutic agents, however there are still therapeutic areas in medical fields that do not meet true therapeutic goals. PharmaEssentia Japan aims to achieve “true therapeutic goals” that have been overlooked. We aim to meet the unmet medical needs of patients with poor treatment satisfaction by applying the innovative pegylated technology platform, which is our core technology, to therapeutic agents that have not been sufficiently able to exert their potential to date due to issues of bioavailability and tolerability. We expect that the developing ropeginterferon will be able to deliver “true therapeutic goals” to medical practice. For more information, visit https://www.pharmaessentiajapan.com.