Leadership
Masamichi Koike, PhD President and CEO
Masamichi Koike, PhD President and CEO
Dr. Masamichi Koike was named President and CEO of BioWa, Inc. on April 1, 2007. For the past 16 years, Dr. Koike has been working on the development of several therapeutic monoclonal antibody (Mab) projects with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo (now, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.) Co., LTD. (Tokyo, Japan).
As a project leader with Kyowa Hakko (now, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.), Dr. Koike has been instrumental in the discovery, planning and development of antibody programs such as the anti-IL-5 receptor and the anti-CCR4. He has worked alongside industry pioneers throughout the process of developing therapeutic antibodies, including the establishment of murine Mabs, the cloning of the genes, the encoding of Mabs, the pharmacological evaluation of Mabs, the development of bioanalysis method and manufacturing process, as well as GLP TOX study planning, development and administration. He joined BioWa, Inc. in March 2005 as Director, Department of Research and Development, and contributed in filing IND for the company’s anti-IL-5 receptor antibody.
Dr. Koike received his bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Science from University of Tokyo and his doctorate in Immunology from University of Tokyo School of Medicine. Dr. Koike received postdoctoral training in the Program of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California, San Francisco, from 1998 to 1999. He holds issued US patents on anti-IL-5 receptor Mab and anti-GM2 Mab, which are in BioWa’s current product pipeline.
Masaharu Suzuki, CFO
Masaharu Suzuki, CFO
With more than a decade of financial experience, Masaharu Suzuki has joined BioWa, Inc. as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Suzuki is responsible for negotiating licensing agreements and evaluating the viability of business projects. Before joining the BioWa team, he was the Treasurer for BioKyowa Inc.. who is one of BioWa’s sister companies located in Missouri, which manufactures amino acids.
From 1994 to 2003, he served as an accountant for Kyowa Hakko Kogyo (now, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.) Co., Ltd. In addition to his accounting role, he was responsible for analyzing cost of goods manufactured, preparing corporate tax return, determining accounting policies of entire Kyowa group, closing and making Kyowa individual/consolidated financial statements, and forming Japanese Form 10-K to a Japanese authority.
Mr. Suzuki graduated from Keio University and holds a bachelor degree in Economics. He attended the University of California Berkeley Extension’s International Business program in 2003. He is a registered Certified Public Accountant.
Marc Silver, Vice President Corporate Development
- Marc Silver, Vice President Corporate Development
BioWa, Inc. has announced the appointment of Marc Silver to Vice President, Corporate Development. Mr. Silver is responsible for continued business development of BioWa’s POTELLIGENT® platform, and extending BioWa’s business activities into related areas.
Mr. Silver has over twenty years of strategic and transactional business development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He previously held senior management positions at Praecis Pharmaceuticals, Ardais Corp. and the American Type Culture Collection where his responsibilities included corporate partnership development, licensing, and intellectual property management. He has an extensive “deal sheet” including a number of significant development and commercialization transactions. Mr. Silver has also been involved in the founding, financing and initial development of life science companies including Aspect Medical Corp., Arris Pharmaceuticals, TargeTech Inc. and Envirogen Corp.
Mr. Silver received an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and his Master’s in Business from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.