Katsura Morita
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
In 1985, as the Managing Director in charge of development, he expressed the view that unfortunately the market was not that large when TAP, the US joint venture, chose Leuprorelin, an anticancer drug for prostate cancer, rather than antibiotics. A man from the R&D side, he joined the company in 1948 and became Executive Vice President in June 1989 and President in June 1991.
Selection
In June 1991 he became President, succeeding Yoshimasa Umemoto. The appointment returned the top post from Umemoto, a former Ministry of Health and Welfare official, to someone from within the company. In the fiscal year ended March 1991, the year before he took office, consolidated revenue was ¥691.4 billion and net income ¥44.4 billion. He served two years, moving to Representative Director and Chairman in June 1993 and handing the presidency to Kunio Takeda.
Initiatives
In March 1993 the company set up a sales company in the US, Takeda America. In the US it had been selling drugs through TAP, the joint venture with Abbott established in May 1985, and the building of its own sales network began here. 1993, the year he stepped down as President, was also the year his successor Kunio Takeda saw the company overtaken in ordinary income by its rival Sankyo.
Career
Career
Takeda Pharmaceutical
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1948 | Joined |
| Jun 1989 | Executive Vice President |
| Jun 1991 | Representative Director, President |
| Jun 1993 | Representative Director, Chairman |
| Jun 1993 | Stepped down as President |
| Jun 1997 | Senior Advisor |