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Dr Michihiko Wada joins Newton Biocapital as an Advisor, Clinical and Medical Sciences

Tokyo, 7th of November 2022 – Newton Biocapital (Headquarters: Brussels, CEO, Alain Parthoens, hereinafter NBC), a venture capital (VC) firm focused on investing in and growing early-stage life sciences companies in Europe and Japan targeting chronic health conditions, welcomes Dr Michihiko Wada in its management-team. He will be a key member to provide scientific and clinical advice to support the growth of Newton Biocapital’s Portfolio Companies.

In his career as a physician/researcher as well as in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr Wada actively developed many early-stage life sciences research-projects to successful start-up by promoting a cooperative approach between VC, academia, pharmaceutical companies and governmental organisations. Thence, he successfully created a win-win collaboration to build a sustainable Japanese ecosystem in life sciences.

After working as a MD (Kyoto University) and working as a Senior Surgeon at Kobe General City Hospital, he joined Bayer Yakuhin in 2007 and served as Head of Oncology and Specialty Medicine in the Research and Development Division. In 2012, he joined as a VP at Alexion Pharma – spun-out from Yale University. At that time, it was a pioneer in this intractable/rare disease fields. As a head of the R&D, 7 drugs (4 products) were set up in the clinical trial and approved within 7 years in Japan. He contributed significantly to the company's success. Currently Wada is a specially appointed professor at the Clinical and Translational Research Center, Keio University Hospital.

“Dr Wada’s advice has been very well received as an advisor by the NBC team and Portfolio Companies, and I am very happy to work with him. We will ask him for more clinical and medical advice and evaluations," says Sadashi Suzuki, Japan Representative NBC.

Ajit Shetty, NBC Chairman says, "We are very honored to welcome Dr. Wada to the Due Diligence team of Newton Biocapital. At the same time, we are confident that NBC can contribute even more to the development of life sciences in Japan and Europe."