Director, Strategic Research and Development

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company is a global healthcare company with the corporate philosophy: "Otsuka-people creating new products for better health worldwide." Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures and markets innovative products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products to meet unmet medical needs and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health.

The Director, Strategic Research and Development within the McQuade Center for Strategic Research & Development (MSRD) plays a key role in providing strategic and operational support for scientific evaluation of early science R&D opportunities. You will be responsible for scientific and technical evaluation of early-stage drug development opportunities, especially, those in the discovery and/or pre-clinical stages. We ask that you have proven scientific skills and understanding of the development, regulatory and commercial aspects of the pharmaceutical/biotech industry, with high emphasis on pre-clinical research. You will serve as a core member of Otsuka's MSRD team to facilitate steering committee decisions, lead due diligence activities, and support transaction processes with scientific inputs. You will ensure that MSRD's business development strategies and decisions are implemented at the operational level and that actions are consistent with the strategy.

This position can based in Rockville, Maryland or Princeton, New Jersey. Otsuka maintains a hybrid work policy and travel is expected 30% of the time based on business needs. Remote options will be considered for US candidates.

Job Description

Responsibilities include:

• Be a key external facing contact for potential collaborators with MSRD
• Perform in-depth scientific evaluation of external opportunities across all stages of discovery and pre-clinical drug development.
• Work with relevant internal R&D and commercial teams to understand their growth strategies and align scouting activities and opportunity assessment to these strategies.
• Conduct secondary research-based searches and participate in BD and scientific conferences to identify growth opportunities in the neuroscience, immunology, and renal fields.
• Work with cross-functional teams and workflows for scientific, clinical, and commercial due diligence of potential targets.
• Coordinate 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.) for strategic investments.
• Produce competitive intelligence reports and briefing summaries/presentation for MSRD steering committee.
• Support activities necessary in completing transactions and deal transition activities to facilitate post-deal operations.
• Provide early project leadership through IND enabling studies.
• May manage 1 or more direct reports at the Sr. Manager or Associate Director level.

Qualifications/ Required

Knowledge/ Experience and Skills:

• Proven experience and expertise of working in pharma/biotech business development environment, with a minimum of 5 years of experience in the pharma/biotech business development is required.
• Clear understanding of drug discovery process and disease pathophysiology of CNS, autoimmune, and/or kidney diseases.
• Ability to understand preclinical and clinical data and analyze the competitive landscape of drug R&D pipeline.
• Demonstrable success and flexibility in working with multi-location, geographically spread teams.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work with multiple functional areas. Experience in making presentations and business cases to the corporate C-suite is desired.
• Ability to act independently with self-driven initiatives to resolve problems and improve current processes.

Educational Qualifications

Advanced degree (such as MD, PhD) with minimum 5 years of pharma/biotech work experience and 3 years' experience in pharma/biotech business development is required OR Master's degree with minimum 8 years of pharma/biotech work experience with 3-4 years in pharma/biotech business development is required.

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Competencies
Accountability for Results - Stay focused on key strategic objectives, be accountable for high standards of performance, and take an active role in leading change.
Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving - Make decisions considering the long-term impact to customers, patients, employees, and the business.
Patient & Customer Centricity - Maintain an ongoing focus on the needs of our custo