This event will offer simultaneous translation between Japanese and English. 
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February 7, 5-6:30 p.m. California time/ February 8, 10-11:30 a.m. Japan time

This event is part of the 2022 Japan Program Winter webinar series, The Future of Social Tech: U.S.-Japan Partnership in Advancing Technology and Innovation with Social Impact

Japan’s startup scene has become more exciting in recent years, but in the medical field, the failure to develop COVID-19 vaccines highlighted the shortcomings of Japan’s medical industry. What should Japan do to foster more impactful biotechnology entrepreneurship that would leverage vibrant medical research carried out at Japanese universities? The panel features two speakers who founded and grew their medical ventures in Japan's rapidly maturing startup ecosystem, both with deep connections to university research. 

Tadahisa Kagimoto founded his first company right after finishing his medical degree at Kyushu University, pioneering a pathway of commercializing biotechnology from Japanese university research. His second startup, Healios, founded in 2013 with the goal of becoming a pioneer in regenerative medicine utilizing iPS, was successfully listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2015 and has been growing since.

Shoko Takahashi was a PhD student in molecular bioscience at the University of Tokyo when she founded her company, Genequest, to offer home DNA testing. The firm was purchased by another biotech startup founded by a University of Tokyo graduate, Euglena, in 2017, and the company has partnered with a variety of pharmaceutical, food and beverage companies, and universities in its research. Their entrepreneurial journeys reveal Japan's changing startup ecosystem that has rapidly matured over the past decade and signal a need for further development in regulatory environments, human resource development, and university-industry collaboration in the biotechnology industry.

 

Panelists

Hardy TS Kagimoto, MD is founder, Chairman and CEO of HEALIOS K.K., a Tokyo-based, clinical-stage world leader in regenerative medicine and cell therapy. 

After founding Healios in 2011, Dr. Kagimoto led the company’s listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2015 and has built the company to its current scale of more than 140 people across its Japan and US offices. Healios leverages the favorable Japanese regulatory framework for regenerative medicine to efficiently deliver results for patients and its stakeholders. It is currently running two pivotal clinical trials for ischemic stroke and acute respiratory distress syndrome using bone marrow-derived allogeneic multipotent adult progenitor cells. At the same time, Healios is developing best-in-class, next generation pipeline assets in immuno-oncology, ophthalmology, and organ buds utilizing its innovative, proprietary universal donor iPS cell platform.

 

Shoko Takahashi founded the Japanese personal genome company Genequest Inc. in 2013 while a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Genequest provides a web-based personal genetic service for consumers and collaborates with research institutions in a large-scale genome research project to maximize synergistic effects between research and personal genome services. She is filled with ambition to accelerate genetic research and contribute to human health all over the world. She graduated from the University of Tokyo with a Ph.D. in Molecular Bioscience in 2015, and Kyoto University with a Bachelor of Biochemistry Science in 2010. She has been awarded the Japan Venture Award and received the highest rating by the Japan Ministry of Economy. In 2015, she was commended by the Japan Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as one of the researchers contributing major innovations to science technologies in Japan.

She received the 2018 Young Global Leaders award from the World Economic Forum and was selected for Newsweek's ‘100 respected Japanese in the world’ list.

 

Moderator

Kenji E. Kushida is a Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously was with the Japan Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as a research scholar.

Kushida’s research and projects focused on the following streams : 1) how politics and regulations shape the development and diffusion of Information Technology such as AI; 2) institutional underpinnings of the Silicon Valley ecosystem, 2) Japan's transforming political economy, 3) Japan's startup ecosystem, 4) the role of foreign multinational firms in Japan, 4) Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. He spearheaded the Silicon Valley - New Japan project that brought together large Japanese firms and the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

He has published several books and numerous articles in each of these streams, including “The Politics of Commoditization in Global ICT Industries,” “Japan’s Startup Ecosystem,” "How Politics and Market Dynamics Trapped Innovations in Japan’s Domestic 'Galapagos' Telecommunications Sector," “Cloud Computing: From Scarcity to Abundance,” and others. His latest business book in Japanese is “The Algorithmic Revolution’s Disruption: a Silicon Valley Vantage on IoT, Fintech, Cloud, and AI” (Asahi Shimbun Shuppan 2016).

 

Utibe R. Essien, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, a general internist and health disparities researcher in the VA Pittsburgh Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion. Dr. Essien’s research focuses on racial disparities in the use of novel therapeutics in the management of chronic diseases including atrial fibrillation and was recently awarded a 5-year, $1 million Career Development Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has applied his health equity research framework to the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly becoming an expert in examining the disparities that disproportionately affect minority communities with COVID-19. His work has been featured in leading medical journals including JAMA and the NEJM and he has been interviewed by several national news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. Dr. Essien is a fierce advocate for diversity and equity in medicine, speaking nationally on the topic and co-founding an “Antiracism in Medicine” podcast for the Clinical Problem Solvers podcast. Dr. Essien's leadership in advancing health equity has resulted in several local and national awards including the 2021 AAMC Herbert Nickens Award.

Mary K. Goldstein, MD, MS, is a Professor of Health Policy and a core faculty member at the Department of Health Policy and the Center for Health Policy, and the Director of the Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. She directs the Stanford/VA Palo Alto Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program, and the Special Fellowship Program in Advanced Geriatrics at VA Palo Alto. She also serves as associate director for the Physician Post-Residency Fellowship Program in Health Services Research and Development, and for the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Medical Informatics, both at VA Palo Alto Health Care System.

Goldstein studies innovative methods of implementing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for quality improvement. She leads the ATHENA Decision Support System project that has developed and implemented an automated clinical decision support system for primary care clinicians, using hypertension as a model, and now extended into several other clinical domains.  Goldstein's research also explores older adults' health preferences (health utility) for application to cost-effectiveness analysis.

Mark Helfand, MD, MS, FACP, is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at the Oregon Health & Science University. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and practices hospital medicine at the Portland VA Medical Center, where he is a staff physician and directs the VA Evidence Synthesis Program Coordinating Center. He founded the Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center (now the Pacific Northwest EPC) in 1997 and, in the 2000’s, led the EPC’s work for the US Preventive Services Task Force and for OHSU’s pioneering Drug Effectiveness Review Project.

Katherine Meckel,  PhD, MA, is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She specializes in topics in public finance, health economics, and environmental economics.

Arden Morris is a health services researcher, professor of surgery, and director of S-SPIRE Center. She has used claims, clinical datasets, and mixed methods to focus on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and quality and outcomes of cancer care. More recently, she has focused on financial toxicity of cancer care and patient out-of-pocket costs that may influence their treatment decisions.

Bhutan time: Friday, February 4th, 2022, 8am to 9am.

Asia Health Policy Program (AHPP) 2021-22 Colloquium series "Aligning Incentives for Better Health and More Resilient Health Systems in Asia”

The Minister of Health of Bhutan, Her Excellency Dasho Dechen Wangmo, will share her insights and experiences from managing the national health system during the COVID-19 crisis, serving as President of the 74th World Health Assembly, and her views on health system strengthening, innovative primary care, chronic disease control, health governance, and the global implications of the pandemic as it unfolds in its third year.

Her Excellency Dasho Dechen Wangmo, the only female Minister in the current cabinet of Bhutan, formally took charge of the Ministry of Health on 7th November 2018. Prior to joining politic in 2018, Her Excellency worked as a public health international consultant with primary focus on health systems, governance, policy and strategic planning for governments and civil societies in many countries (USA, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, PNG, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Senegal). She brings her background working on various global health issues including health system strengthening, health governance, grant implementation, monitoring and evaluation system to the current portfolio.

On 17th December 2020 in recognition of her outstanding service to the Nation, she was conferred the “Red Scarf”, one of highest honors a Bhutanese civilian can receive, by His Majesty the King. Her Excellency is a passionate public health advocate and social worker at heart. Hon’ble Lyonpo was nominated as the President of the 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) by Member States of the WHO’s South East Asia Region in 2020. She will hold the office of the President for a duration of one year and it is an honour bestowed on Bhutan for the first time since it became a member of the WHO in 1982.

In addition to her memberships in professional organizations, she is also a founder of the Bhutan Cancer Society, a CSO working for the well being of cancer patients in Bhutan, and a founding chairperson for Lhaksam, the HIV-positive network in the country. Her Excellency has a Master in Public Health (MPH) from Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, USA, and a Bachelor in Cardiopulmonary Science (magna cum laude) from Northeastern University, Boston, USA.