Shun Asami has departed from Eisai Innovation, the corporate venturing arm of Eisai, and joined another Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo as a manager.
Asami held positions as senior investment director and San Francisco division head for three years from 2019.
Formed in 2019, Eisai Innovation focuses on healthcare investment opportunities, concentrating on neurology and oncology as well as diagnostics technologies.
Eisai Innovation‘s US-based portfolio companies include neurology diagnostics technology developer Altoida and neurodegenerative diseases treatment provider Caraway Therapeutics.
Previously, Asami had served 11 years at Eisai, first as a clinical development manager in 2008 before taking up a corporate strategy department manager role in 2017. He was named a corporate venture investment associate director in May 2019, five months before the CVC unit was created.
Asami did not respond to GCV’s request for comment and it is unclear whether he will be involved in corporate venturing at Daiichi Sankyo. The firm had done some corporate venturing in the past, including a commitment to non-profit medical research organisation Baruch S. Blumberg Institute’s Hatch Biofund 1 in 2021 and a direct investment in cell therapy developer Cuorips the year before.