Andy Plump to step down as Takeda's R&D chief
Plump was appointed chief medical and scientific officer at Takeda in 2015, stepping up to the role of president three years later.
Andy Plump, credited with a 'soup-to-nuts' overhaul of Takeda's R&D in more than a decade of leadership at the division, has announced his retirement.
Plump is due to step down in June 2027. Until then, he will continue in the role of president of R&D – and remain a member of Takeda's board of directors – while a successor is sought, and assist in the handover to the new R&D chief.
Leading Takeda's R&D operations has been "the privilege of a lifetime," according to Plump, who was appointed chief medical and scientific officer at Takeda in 2015, stepping up to the role of president three years later.
During his tenure, he introduced a cultural shift in R&D at the Japanese group, making it more open to external collaborations to build its pipeline.
At the time, Japanese drugmakers were known for generally keeping their R&D in-house. Working with Takeda's then CEO Christophe Weber – the first Westerner to take the role – Plump redefined its approach to innovation and helped to recast the company as an international player.
He was one of the architects of its $62 billion takeover of Shire in 2019, which made Takeda a top 20 drugmaker and ramped up its presence in the US and European markets, and narrowed Takeda's R&D focus to core therapeutic categories like rare disease, gastroenterology and oncology.
Under Plump's leadership, Takeda set up a US R&D headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he also strove to expand its capabilities across different treatment modalities, although some efforts, including a push into cell therapies, have not delivered as once hoped.
Among the highlights of his time at Takeda are the launch of the narcolepsy treatment Orzeyful (oveporexton), the first drug orexin agonist to reach the market, along with Mimrylo (rusfertide) for erythrocytosis in adults with polycythemia vera, the first approved drug in the hepcidin mimetic class.
There could be more to come as well, as Takeda has high hopes for zasocitinib, a selective oral TYK2 inhibitor for psoriasis, and a new wave of late-stage assets including mezagitamab for chronic autoimmune and kidney diseases, fazirsiran for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency-associated liver disease, and elritercept for myelodysplastic syndromes.
"Andy has led Takeda's R&D through a significant period of transformation and growth," said Takeda's CEO Julie Kim.
"Under his leadership, Takeda's pipeline was rebuilt with an innovative therapeutic area focus, and we now have a robust late-stage pipeline which has delivered three transformative medicines that we are poised to launch in the coming months."
