This individual will report into the Global Business Development Leader, Business Development. He/ she will support Otsuka’s Business Development activities in the US and EU focusing on pre-clinical and clinical stage business development opportunities, acting as a search and evaluation lead. The Director Business Development must possess substantial scientific knowledge and experience working in industry to understand the drug discovery and development process, and how scientific assessment within business development can advance our portfolio interests. The role requires extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including a broad and deep understanding of development, regulatory and (ideally) commercial experience. This individual will participate in the process for identifying, prioritizing and sequencing of projects within pre-clinical / clinical stage business development, and gain BD experience through working within the broader global BD teams. There is an expectation that the process is owned for the relevant therapy area(s) by this person and ensure initiatives are in alignment with corporate strategy objectives. Acts as a communication conduit for business project status, actions, decisions, risk and issues and schedules for assigned projects to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

• Independently lead search and evaluation activities and projects in the Neuroscience and Nephrology fields to proactively identify and solicit new strategic research partnerships with biotech and pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, non-profit research or patient organizations
• Work closely with relevant internal R&D teams to deeply understand their scientific strategy and align outreach strategy with existing and new areas of Otsuka’s R&D focus to align on opportunity assessment
• Participate in and lead in-depth reviews and due diligence on external opportunities and act as a point of contact between the alliance teams and committees to assure successful collaboration with respect to development and commercialization of product
• Lead the activities/input necessary to establish the business case (scientific/ technical evaluation, development plan, market research, market opportunity, competitive intelligence, strategic assessment, appropriate transaction financial structure etc.) and present it to senior leaders in the business
• Working closely with the Global Strategy Group to ensure BD strategy is co-developed and execution plan(s) developed
• Perform initial scientific evaluation of external opportunities across all stages of development and play an integral role in the transaction team supporting licensing deals and/or acquisitions of assets
• Own the overall execution of an evaluation project providing oversight to the BD team membership involved in the project as well as cross-functional
• Potential line management responsibilities of Scouting Manager and / or Project Manager resource

Qualifications

Knowledge:

• Business development experience within pre-clinical and/or clinical stage business development
• Requires demonstrated knowledge and understanding of pharmaceutical development and commercialization and business practices required to successfully bring drugs to market
• Knowledge of regulated environments
• Extensive scientific knowledge – ideally in neuroscience and / or nephrology, and / or other significant scientific training is required

Skills:

• Self-starter who is able to effectively lead multiple projects simultaneously
• Deliver and produce outcomes consistently over time
• Strong interpersonal relationships to strengthen business relationships
• Effective creator and presenter of executive and functional information
• Strong business acumen and analytic and quantitative skills
• Utilizes experience, presentation and influencing skills to facilitate successful acquisition of the right opportunities
• Highly collaborative - demonstrates team and resource management skills; including the ability to manage team dynamics across companies.
• Ability to influence and lead cross-functional teams
• Senior stakeholder management

Competencies:

• Consistently demonstrates competencies at the Director level: Strategic Agility, Learning Agility, Contributing to Effective Teams, Decision Quality, Dealing with Ambiguity, Managerial Courage, Managing with Vision/Purpose, Matrix working

Education and Related Experience:

• Required: BS/BA and scientific graduate degree (PhD or MD)
• MBA preferred, but not mandatory with:

• 8+ years working in business development, commercial and/or medical affairs area of pharmaceutical or biotechnology
• Experience in sourcing and evaluating pharmaceutical or bi