Eisai Inc. has appointed Thomas D. Fagan Jr. as VP for the U.S. Alzheimer’s Disease Commercial unit, which will be instrumental in growing the parent firms operations in the US.
Eisai Inc. has appointed Thomas D. Fagan Jr. as vice president for the U.S. Alzheimer’s Disease Commercial unit, a new role that will be instrumental in growing parent firm Eisai Co.'s operations in the United States.
Fagan, who joins the company with over 20 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device spaces, comes in during expansion and growth, particularly in the firm’s AD business. He will be working closely with Eisai’s partners and internal teams to prepare for the imminent launch of a late-stage investigational anti-amyloid protofibril antibody. In addition to this role, he will also serve as a member of the executive committee for the Americas.
Prior to this appointment, Fagan served as a global commercial leader for Alzheimer’s Disease, during which time he was credited for designing, building and leading commercial teams in launching a first-in-class PET radiopharmaceutical used in AD diagnosis. He was also the global brand development leader for AD.
“For four decades, Eisai has been at the forefront of AD research and development. We are very pleased to welcome Tom, whose knowledge and experience in AD will be essential as we seek to bring leading therapies and solutions to people living with AD, their families, and the health care professionals who serve them as soon as possible. Tom is the latest strategic hire as Eisai continues to add to our strong U.S. executive team in an effort to advance our human health care mission and social good,” Ivan Cheung, the chairman and chief executive of Eisai Inc. and the global Alzheimer’s Disease officer and senior corporate officer of Eisai Co. said.
Esai has a robust investigational dementia pipeline covering prevention and disease modification compounds across the entire dementia continuum, including amyloid, tau, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation.
The company also announced that it will present research in three oral and 18 poster presentations at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in San Diego, California, from July 31 to August 4. Included in its presentations are new data for lecanemab (BAN2401). Lecanemab is its investigational anti-amyloid beta protofibril antibody for treating mild cognitive impairment due to AD and mild AD with a confirmed presence of amyloid pathology in the brain.
“Additional research presented will highlight Eisai’s efforts to improve ethnic and racial diversity in our early Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials in the United States so that study populations mirror the U.S. Medicare population, as well as research from our collaboration with Sysmex on potential biomarkers that may contribute to early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease,” Michael Irizarry, M.D., the senior vice president, deputy chief clinical officer for Alzheimer’s Disease and Brain Health at Eisai Inc., commented in another statement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted its Biologics License Application for lecanemab on July 5 under the accelerated approval pathway. It was also given priority review with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date of January 6, 2023. The readout of the primary endpoint research of Clarity AD, its ongoing clinical trial, will happen in the fall of this year.
