About Us
Founders & Officers
Hiroshi Mizushima
Founder & Member of the Board
Hiroshi received his academic education at the University of Tokyo, where he earned his doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1988.
During his long career including positions at the National Cancer Center, Tokyo Medical and Dental University and the National Institute of Public Health, he has focused mainly on topics related to healthcare IT, computational biology and genomics as well as the challenges facing rare disease R&D in Japan. He has worked with the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) to develop rare disease research policy and research.
In the early 2010’s, Hiroshi and Norikazu along with other members founded the Tokyo Rare Disease Forum to collect and discuss all relevant information about rare diseases and they worked with PMDA to develop specific regulations to facilitate progress in the field. Current members are about 300 among Government officials, academic and pharmaceutical researchers, patients and their relatives, patient organizations, healthcare companies, etc.
Norikazu Eiki
Founder & Member of the Board
Nori served as the President and Chairman Representative Director of Bayer Yakuhin from 2002 to 2014.
Following his retirement from Bayer in 2014, he relocated to New Jersey, USA, where he is affiliated with the New York Consulting ABPS Group; Nori continues to advise numerous Japanese government organisations and companies regarding policy and R&D issues in the US and Japan.
Together with Hiroshi Mizushima, Nori has played an active role in building and managing the Tokyo Rare Disease Forum and he continues to frequently visit Japan and to make presentations on various topics related to the global and Japanese innovation ecosystem.
Rob Koremans
Founder & Member of the Board
Rob qualified as a medical doctor from RSM Erasmus University in the Netherlands and has over 30 years’ experience in managerial and senior executive roles, gained mainly in the pharmaceutical industry at various international companies, including J&J, Serono, Grünenthal, Sanofi-Aventis and Teva.
From 1st December 2021, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of Recordati S.p.A., where he has focused on building the company’s R&D activities and global market presence in the rare disease field.
Recordati has been founded in 1926 and is recognized as a global leader in the field of rare and ultra rare diseases.
Christian Elze
Founder & Member of the Board
Since the mid-90’s, Christian has worked as a management consultant supporting decision-making of executives in biopharmaceutical companies, the last twenty years as a founder and senior partner of the science-driven strategy consultancy Catenion; Christian has now retired from Catenion and supports a number of biopharmaceutical companies as a member of their board and/or scientific advisory board.
Christian has regularly done business in Japan for the last twenty years; he has deep experience with evaluating technology platforms and R&D assets of many modalities and at all R&D stages from target ID to phase IV trials, by systematically looking at the relevant scientific, clinical, CMC, regulatory, financial and market sentiment dimensions
He has worked on improving translational medicine strategies with a number of universities, among them Tel Aviv University, Charité and Stanford and he has supported the Israeli government with the development of a sustainable biotechnology strategy
Hiroshi Kowaki
CEO & Representative Director
Hiroshi is a biopharmaceutical leader with more than 25 years of experience of building and scaling Japan businesses across the rare disease and specialty care.
After having worked for Boehringer Ingelheim and Astra Zeneca, he set up the Japan subsidiaries for two U.S.-based biopharmaceutical companies, namely Alnylam and Amylyx and introduced a new class of RNAi therapeutics to the Japanese market.
Hiroshi has deep expertise in Japan market entry (PMDA consultations, MAH/ODD), NDA/BLA strategy, NHI pricing and access, and cross-functional governance with global stakeholders.