Astellas Pharma

Donald B. Rice, Ph.D. will retire from Agensys, Inc., an affiliate of Astellas Pharma, Inc. Sef Kurstjens, M.D., Ph.D. will replace Dr. Rice as the new chief executive officer and president. Founded by Dr. Rice, Agensys, Inc. develops novel oncology products through its pipeline of therapeutic fully human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to treat solid tumor cancers.

Dr. Kurstjens joins the company from Allergan, Inc., where he served as senior vice president, chief medical officer and head, Global Drug Development. Dr. Kurstjens has leadership experience in all aspects of clinical development and will lead the company in its efforts to improve patients’ lives through a growing pipeline of clinical stage functional MAbs and antibody-drug conjugated products.