Biography
Dr Tadataka Yamada
Chief Medical & Scientific Officer (CMSO),
Executive Vice President & Board Member, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada is Executive Vice-President and a Board Member of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In this capacity he serves as a science and medical advisor to the CEO and chairs the Corporate Management Operating Committee which oversees all investments in research and development, business development and in-licensing. He is also Senior Entrepreneur in Residence at Frazier Healthcare for whom he supports its venture and growth equity activities. He was formerly President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program. In this capacity he oversaw grants totaling over $9 billion in programs directed at applying technologies to address major health challenges of the developing world including TB, HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases, malnutrition and maternal and child health.
Before joining the Gates Foundation Dr. Yamada was Chairman, Research and Development and a Member of the Board of Directors of GlaxoSmithKline. He joined SmithKline Beecham as a non executive Member of the Board of Directors in 1994. In 1996, he accepted a full-time position at SmithKline Beecham as Executive Director and President of their Healthcare Services Division and in 1999, he was named Chairman, Research and Development, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, After the merger of SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome in 2001 he was named as Chairman, Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline. In this capacity he had direct executive responsibility for a research operation that encompassed 16,000 employees and an annual budget of $5.0 billion.
Dr. Yamada was born in Japan, and completed his education in the United States. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in history and obtained his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine. After completing his internal medicine training at the Medical College of Virginia he became an investigator in the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, trained in gastroenterology at the UCLA School of Medicine and assumed his first faculty position there. He later moved to the University of Michigan where he ultimately became Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of the University of Michigan Medical Center before joining GlaxoSmithKline.
A scientist and scholar in gastroenterology, Dr. Yamada is the author of more than 150 original manuscripts on the subject and is the editor of The Textbook of Gastroenterology (now in its Fifth Edition). The studies undertaken by Dr. Yamada and his collaborators led to basic discoveries in the post-translational processing and biological activation of peptide hormones, the structure and function of receptors for hormones regulating gastric acid secretion, and the regulation of genes involved in the acid secretory process.
In recognition of his contributions to medicine and science he has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (US), the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) and the National Academy of Medicine (Mexico). He has received an honorary appointment as Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) and been conferred the degree of D.Sci. honoris causa, from the University of East Anglia (UK), the University of Warwick (UK) and Washington College. He has also been the recipient of numerous awards including the Distinguished Achievement Award in Gastrointestinal Physiology from the American Physiological Society, the Friedenwald Medal from the American Gastroenterological Association, the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan and the Distinguished Medical Scientist Award from the Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Yamada is a Fellow of the Imperial College of Medicine, a Master of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Past-President of the Association of American Physicians and a Past-President of the American Gastroenterological Association. He has also been a Member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners.
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Last Updated On 25 January 2012