2 December 2013Asia-Pacific

Takeda announces new COO

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited has announced that Christophe Weber, a member of GlaxoSmithKline(GSK)’s global corporate executive team, will be joining the company as chief operating officer by April next year.

He has also become a candidate as Takeda’s next chief executive.

Weber is currently president and general manager at GSK Vaccines and chief executive of GSK Biologicals SA in Belgium.

Between 2008 and 2010, he served as Asia Pacific senior vice president and regional director at GSK Asia Pacific in Singapore.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, president and chief executive of Takeda said: “We have extremely high expectations for Mr Weber’s contributions to further enhance and accelerate the implementation of Takeda's global strategy based on his extraordinary and broad business experiences including an impressive track record in top global pharmaceutical companies.”

According to a statement by Takeda, Weber is expected to become the company’s president and representative director upon approval at its ordinary general meeting of shareholders and board of directors meeting at the end of June 2014.