Gary Gordon, M.D., M.B.A.
President
Dr. Gordon has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior management roles in finance, business development and operations. Dr. Gordon became Kowa Research Institute’s President in January 2012. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Operations from 2010 through 2011. Prior to joining Kowa, Dr. Gordon was the VP, Finance and Business Development and CFO of BioStratum. During his tenure, he established corporate partnerships for the company’s diabetes and cancer drug candidates and successfully raised several rounds of private financing. Prior to moving to RTP, he co-founded and was the CFO of Sentinel Biosciences, a Palo Alto-based company focused on new pathogen discovery and diagnostic development. At Sentinel, Dr. Gordon was responsible for all licensing and finance activities and directed the general operations of the company until its acquisition by Roche in 1999. Dr. Gordon also held business development and marketing positions at Genelabs Technologies and Warner Lambert.
Dr. Gordon received a B.A. in Genetics from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MD from Cornell University Medical Center. In 1992, he earned an MBA with a major in finance from Columbia University.
Yoichiro Inagaki, MS, R.Ph
Vice President
Mr. Inagaki has over 23 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior management roles in clinical developments and operations. He became Vice President of Kowa Research Institute in May 2018. Mr. Inagaki joined Kowa Company, Ltd. in 1995. He started in medical affairs for marketed products in Japan where he presented data of Kowa’s products to physicians, trained medical representatives on product profiles and other medical information and coordinated and collaborated with academia for research on Kowa’s marketed products. After completing a language training program in the UK, he moved to the EU/US clinical development department and, in 2002, he was transferred to the US and in North Carolina, set up Kowa’s first US clinical development office. There, he served as a Director of Project Management for dyslipidemia projects, and obtained approval for the statin Livalo in 2010, which was Kowa’s first US pharmaceutical product. He then returned to Japan and managed clinical trials of a dyslipidemia drug and a topical pain drug in Japan and China, including a pediatric trial. In 2014, he became Director of the European and American Drug Development Department, overseeing the clinical development activities of Kowa’s EU and US affiliates. In 2018, Kowa decided to expand its global clinical development programs. Mr. Inagaki was promoted to Vice President, and moved to New York to establish a new global development headquarters. Mr. Inagaki also serves as an Executive Officer at Kowa Company, Ltd.
Mr. Inagaki. received a B.A. and M.S. from a pharmacy school of Tokyo University of Science and is a registered pharmacist in Japan.
Ross Laderman, MPH
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Ross Laderman, MPH has extensive experience in regulatory affairs, both as a regulator and as an industry executive. He started his career at the Food and Drug Administration after completing his undergraduate degree at MacMurray College. During his 25 years with the FDA, Mr. Laderman served in a number of positions of increasing responsibility, first as a field investigator and, during his last 10 years, as Deputy Director, Division of Scientific Investigations in CDER. He has been involved with the full spectrum of drug regulatory programs and policies and is recognized as an expert in the application and regulatory evaluation of GMP, GLP and GCP compliance and programs. He also played an active role in ICH collaborations and served as an expert advisor to the World Health Organization. In addition, Mr. Laderman has participated in various forums sponsored by RAPS, DIA, FDLI, PhRMA and others.
After leaving the FDA, Mr. Laderman became Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Guilford Pharmaceuticals and later, he became the lead regulatory affairs officer at Delsys Pharmaceutical Corp., PRA International and BioStratum before joining Kowa Research Institute.
Mr. Laderman received his MPH in Health Policy & Management from Johns Hopkins University and has taken post-graduate training at several other distinguished institutions. Mr. Laderman’s professional society memberships include RAPS, DIA and FDAAA.
Mr. Laderman is a member of Kowa Research Institute’s senior management team and is the principal interface with the FDA and responsible for all U.S. regulatory affairs activities.