Investment Lead
Satoshi Konagai, MBA
Mr. Konagai joined AVM in 2020. Before joining AVM, he worked at the Strategic department at Astellas Pharma Inc. based in Tokyo HQ since 2015. He has led various internal projects and evaluation of external later stage opportunities across multiple therapeutic areas and modalities including Oncology, Ophthalmology and regenerative medicine. In parallel, he served as a member who develops corporate global R&D strategy and business strategy for regenerative medicine using his scientific and business intelligence. From 2004 to 2015, he was engaged in Oncology research programs including kinase inhibitors, Immuno-Oncology and biologics from target discovery to clinical stage as a pharmacology research scientist in Drug Discovery Research Center at Astellas Pharma Inc. Mr. Konagai has received his Master of Life Science degree in the field of Integrated Life Science from Kyoto University and Master of Business Administration, Entrepreneurship and Innovation from University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Investment Lead
Tadayoshi Hirata
Mr. Hirata Joined AVM in April 2018. Prior to Joining AVM, he worked in Innovation Management at Astellas Pharma Inc. (Japan) since April 2016, in charge of business transaction for early stage partnering deals. From June 2009 to March 2016, he worked for Clinical Pharmacology Department at Astellas Pharma Inc. taking a lead in preparing early-stage clinical development plans utilizing translational science principles. He also led clinical study protocol preparation and data analysis, and coordinated and managed preparation of applications for Clinical Pharmacology components, including Briefing Documents, INDs and NDAs and represented as a Clinical Pharmacology representative to the relevant regulatory authorities. He started his job career as a research scientist at MSD (Former Banyu Pharmaceutical co., LTD. a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc.) in April 2005 with background on pharmacokinetics and molecular biology.
Investment Lead
Shinichi Miyake, Ph.D.
Dr. Miyake joined AVM in August 2023. Prior to AVM, he was responsible for search and evaluation to find partnering and collaboration opportunities in Immunology, Immuno-oncology, Ophthalmology, Otology, Monogenic Disorders, Neurology, and Psychiatry in Astellas Innovation Management and Business Development over the past 3.5 years. Dr. Miyake holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the medical school of Osaka University and had postdoc training as a visiting fellow at the stroke branch in NINDS/ NIH. After joining Astellas, he led modality-based drug discovery research (small molecules, cell, and gene therapy) and the team for 16 years at Astellas Research Institute of America (ARIA) in San Diego/Chicago and Astellas Pharma Inc. in Japan as a molecular pharmacologist.
Investment Lead
Hiroyuki Usuda, Ph.D.
Hiro Usuda joined AVM in 2026. Prior to AVM, he was Scouting & Transaction Lead, Business Development at Astellas in Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he was responsible for identifying and evaluating European technologies and assets, managing relationships with external partners, and leading collaborations, licensing transactions, and M&A. He began his career at Astellas as a medicinal chemist, contributing to the discovery and development of immunology and oncology drug candidates. Hiro received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tokyo and had a postdoc training as a visiting fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.
Board of Managers
Amy Skarr (President)
Matt Vogt
Veronika Hughes-Bednar
Contact
Astellas Venture Management LLC
480 Forbes Blvd,
South San Francisco, CA 94080
AVM_web-sm@astellas.com