The CoRE family is deeply saddened by the loss of CoRE’s former Advisory Board member, Dr Tatsuya Kondo at the age of 79 on 26 September 2021.
Dr Kondo was one of our founding Advisory Board members whose deep regulatory and scientific knowledge and wise guidance significantly contributed to the development of CoRE in our initial years. His stewardship, commitment and support in enabling the Centre to establish a sound strategic foundation and regional presence will always be appreciated.
A neurosurgeon by training, Dr Kondo was Chief Executive of Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) for 11 years until 2019. He was internationally respected and recognised for having transformed the organisation to become a leading global regulatory authority. He boosted its staff strength and expertise, and spurred it to significantly speed up Japan’s regulatory reviews of new drugs to the fastest in the world from 2014-2016.
Following his retirement from PMDA, Dr Kondo served as CEO of Medical Excellence JAPAN, until his passing. He also chaired a task force under the Executive Committee of the Global Health and Human Security and worked on drawing up a proposal to promote regulatory harmonization for drugs and medical devices in Asia, among other activities.
He will be remembered as a great mentor, advisor and friend to many in the international health products regulatory community, and will be greatly missed.