Japan­ese bil­lion­aire Mik­i­tani takes full con­trol of Rakuten As­pyr­i­an; HOX Ther­a­peu­tics taps Karl Kee­gan as CEO

→ Hav­ing in­fused $150 mil­lion in­to Rakuten As­pyr­i­an weeks ago, Hi­roshi “Mick­ey” Mik­i­tani is step­ping up his con­trol on the biotech he’s been chair­ing since 2016. The Japan­ese bil­lion­aire, known for build­ing a leg­endary e-tail­er from scratch, is tak­ing over the CEO role so that Miguel Gar­cia-Guz­man can con­tin­ue to build the pho­toim­munother­a­py pipeline as CSO and vice chair­man. As the San Diego-based com­pa­ny turns the cor­ner on a Phase III study, it’s al­so ap­point­ed Takashi Toraishi, who was man­ag­ing its Japan of­fices, as COO to over­see clin­i­cal tri­als and com­mer­cial­iza­tion.

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