HK

Hiromichi Kimura

Investment Director at Astellas Venture Management LLC

San Francisco Bay Area

Overview 

Hiromichi Kimura is a Ph.D. scientist with a strong background in molecular biology and oncology, currently serving as an Investment Director at Astellas Venture Management LLC and a Senior Director at Astellas Pharma US. He has made significant investments in companies like Casma Therapeutics and DEM BioPharma, demonstrating expertise in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. Kimura has held leadership positions at Takeda Oncology and conducted postdoctoral research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, showcasing a diverse career spanning academia, industry, and investment. His involvement in Series A and Series C funding rounds highlights his strategic role in shaping the growth of emerging life sciences companies.

Work Experience 

Astellas Venture Management LLC

  • Investment Director

    2018 - Current

    Led and achieved 11 qualified investments to early stage Bioventures and built 3 strategic LP partnerships with top 1&2 venture capitals from deal due diligence to execution of agreements under my supervision last 2 years. Some of Bioventures have reached out to Pharma deals. Organization management to upgrade to professional global standard including budget, people, legal, IP, venture capital tasks.

Astellas Pharma US

  • Senior Director

    2014 - 2018

    Post merger integration as cross-functional leadership in Research and Manufacture, IP & legal (Ganymed, Ogeda, Quethera), Oncology drug discovery, Management of Local and Global research collaborations including CRUK, Translational Science, Project based partnership Management: People, Budget, Legal documents, External relationships Supervised/managed over 10 oncology programs Co-founded Kyoto University-Astellas incubator research station in Kyoto University.

TO

Takeda Oncology

  • Dual position/Associate Director/Research head/Head of Department in Pharmacology

    2013 - 2014

    Protein homeostasis in Oncology

T

Takeda

  • Associate Director/Research head/Head of Department in Pharmacology (SRC)

    2007 - 2014

    Drug discovery (generated first in class 10+ programs as lead and Head), Translational Science in Oncology, Global organizational collaboration with Takeda San Francisco, Takeda San Diego, and Millennium: Takeda Oncology Management: People, Budget, Organization, Annual planning, cross-functional projects

SJ

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - ALSAC

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate (Tom Curran, FRS lab)

    2001 - 2007

    Academic independent position (2006-2007) Basic and Translational Science in Oncology Long-term collaboration with Genentech (Fred de Sauvage) and Curis (Lee Rubin) AACR Scholar in Awards (2003, 2006, 2007) International Congress Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Young Scientist Award (2006) International Congress Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Best Presentation Award (2006)

TU

The University of Tokyo

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow of JSPS for Young Scientist

    2000 - 2002

    Molecular biology, Cellular proliferation, Epigenetics

Education 

Investments 

Casma Therapeutics

Series C

Total funding: $160M

DEM BioPharma

Series A

Total funding: $70M

LUCA Science

Series A

Total funding: $39M

Mogrify

Series A

Total funding: $47M

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