Scientific Operations
Scientific Operations
Takeshi leads H3’s team of Scientific Operations and was one of the founding members of H3 Biomedicine in 2011, with key contributions to the creation and build-out of key corporate elements and functions. Currently, he is responsible for the management of the entire program portfolio of the company, ranging from discovery to the clinic. Takeshi’s group provides program management and strategic support to all of H3’s programs and platforms. Takeshi began his professional career as a research scientist in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics at Eisai and contributed to two investigational new drug (IND) filings attained by the team during his tenure. He then transitioned into R&D management after completing his M.B.A. Prior to joining H3, Takeshi served as Senior Director of Portfolio Management for Eisai’s Oncology Business Group where he led portfolio optimization and program prioritization.
Takeshi received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his Ph.D. and B.A., both in pharmaceutical sciences, from the University of Tokyo.
President and Chief Scientific Officer
President and Chief Scientific Officer
Ping joined H3 in 2012 and is currently President and Chief Scientific Officer and serves as an executive leadership team member. Ping brings more than 15 years of experience in cancer research and drug discovery to H3, where he has held positions of increasing scientific and management responsibility. At H3, his group aims to discover next-generation anti-cancer medicines by targeting highly validated molecular targets based upon genomics, transcriptomics and functional data, using systematic approaches. Prior to joining H3, Ping was a group leader at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he worked on early drug discovery and target identification and validation in oncology, leading multidisciplinary teams across multiple geographic locations. In 2010, he earned the Novartis Catalyst Award for cancer drug discovery innovation. His research has been published in leading scientific journals including Cell, Nature, Cancer Discovery, Cancer Cell and Nature Communications. Ping was also a recipient of the Endocrine Scholars Award from the Endocrine Society for his scientific achievements.
Ping received his Medical Degree (B.M.) from Shanghai Second Medical University, his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and UC San Diego.
Human Resources
Human Resources
Aija joined H3 in 2015 as the Head of Human Resources. Aija is an accomplished senior human resources professional with over 15 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry managing strategic and tactical HR issues. In her current position, she is responsible for leading all HR business transformations, building organizational capabilities, and helping to shape the company’s performance culture. Prior to joining H3, Aija held the position of Human Resources Director, Oncology Translational Medicine unit of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. At Novartis, she provided HR guidance to the Leadership team and Business Partner support to global employee population of 400+ associates; while also disseminating advice and coaching on employee relations issues, salary planning, and retention strategies, and leading the performance management, annual compensation planning and employee development processes for this business division. Aija also served in senior HR management positions at Merck & Co., Inc.
Aija received her Master of Labor Relations degree from the University of Illinois and a B.S. in psychology from Illinois State University.
Deputy President
Deputy President
Ross now serves as Deputy President overseeing H3 business functions. Ross joined H3 in Feb 2018 as Vice President of Clinical Operations providing leadership in the Clinical Development team for the planning and execution of H3’s portfolio of target-centric precision oncology medicines. Ross brings more than 30 years of extensive drug development experience to H3. He has focused his career in clinical operations, regulatory affairs, and alliance and portfolio management. During that time Ross has been a key contributor in bringing multiple new drugs to market, across a number of therapeutic areas, and engaging in multiple strategic development alliances and partnerships. Ross has worked extensively in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has held leadership positions with companies including Otsuka, EMD Serono, Coley, ARIAD, AMAG, Infinity and Beigene.
Ross earned an M.B.A. in HealthCare Management from the University of Phoenix and a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Kingston, London.
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Takashi Owa currently serves as the President and the Chief Discovery Officer of Eisai Oncology Business Group as well as a member of Board of Directors for Eisai Inc. and a Chairman and CEO for H3 Biomedicine Inc. in the United States. In this role, he is responsible for leading the worldwide R&D operations of Eisai Oncology. Since October 2021, he has also served as a Corporate Officer, a Senior Vice President and the Head of Japan & Asia Medical HQs of Eisai Co., Ltd. in Japan. Dr. Owa joined Eisai as a research scientist in the Oncology Department of Tsukuba Research Laboratories in 1991. Over the years, he has assumed positions of increasing responsibility within R&D operations. Since his relocation to the United States in 2009, He has been in charge of the full product creation cycle from discovery research to clinical development for regulatory approval of innovative oncology drugs in Eisai, including anticancer sulfonamides E7070/indisulam and E7820 as selective protein degraders of the splicing factor CAPER/RBM39, the splicing factor SF3B modulator E7107 as well as two approved drugs Halaven/eribulin (microtubule dynamics inhibitor) and Lenvima/lenvatinib (VEGFR/FGFR/PDGFR/RET/KIT tyrosine kinase inhibitor). He has also been engaged in several open innovation projects, including research and development of the EZH2 inhibitor Tazverik/tazemetostat and the CBP/β-catenin interaction inhibitor E7386 in collaboration with Epizyme and PRISM BioLab, respectively.
Dr. Owa received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of Tokyo, with particular focus on chemistry and biology of naturally-occurring and man-designed bleomycins. In addition, he studied as a two-year, post-doctoral visiting scientist at Professor Stuart Schreiber’s laboratory in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, where he focused on chemical biology with histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as well as the anticancer marine product ecteinascidin 743 (Yondelis/trabectedin) and its synthetic analog phthalascidin 650. Dr. Owa was honored by the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Division of Medicinal Chemistry, Gilda’s Club New York City and CancerCare with three major awards for his work.
Since our founding in 2011, H3 has been committed to finding and developing novel potential treatments in our quest to treat cancer.
H3 Biomedicine founded by Eisai, $200M funding commitment
H3 Biomedicine announces start of scientific operations at Kendall Square
H3 and Foundation Medicine announce collaboration to discover novel targets
IND Acceptance for Phase 1 H3B-8800 novel splicing modulator in advanced myeloid malignancies
IND Acceptance for Phase 1 H3B-6527 FGFR4 inhibitor for HCC
IND Acceptance for Phase 1 H3B-6545 novel ER antagonist for ER+ mBrCa
H3 and Bristol Myers Squibb begin research collaboration to advance novel therapeutics leveraging H3’s RNA splicing platform
IND Acceptance for Phase 1 E7766 STING Agonist
H3 joined the Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap) Consortium
H3 is a wholly owned precision oncology research and development subsidiary of the leading global pharmaceutical company, Eisai. With the resource and expertise of a large pharmaceutical company coupled with the agility and innovation of a small biotech, H3 employs an efficient research and development approach to advance programs from discovery to the clinic and aims to deliver impactful therapeutics to patients in need of meaningful new treatment options.
Combining the support of a global pharmaceutical company with the culture of a fast-paced Cambridge, MA biotech, H3 has compounded the best elements of the drug research and development landscape into an environment of productive growth and advancement. Our employees are our single greatest asset and this mindset combined with a collaborative and innovative atmosphere, enables our varied oncology perspectives to flourish and has produced a portfolio of promising discovery and development programs across a variety of cancers and therapeutic approaches. Our diverse strengths enable us to all make a difference in the future of cancer care.
Crafting the proper story requires a diverse cast of characters. This is what H3 says about their…
If you are interested in joining our talented team to work towards making meaningful contributions in the field of cancer therapeutics, consider applying for the open positions listed.
