Dr Yasuhiro Fujiwara has taken his position as Chief Executive of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) since April 1, 2019.
He has been elected Co-chair of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) from 1st October 2019.
Dr. Yasuhiro Fujiwara was previously Director-General, Strategic Planning Bureau of the National Cancer Center, and Deputy Director of the Hospital, National Cancer Center Hospital. He is a medical oncologist, specializing in breast cancer. Before joining National Cancer Center Hospital, he was Deputy Director of the Evaluation Division II of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Evaluation Center of the National Institute of Health Sciences (PMDEC, which later merged with other organizations to form PMDA) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Labor between 1997 –2002, making his current position as Chief Executive his second appointment. Between Jan 2011 to Feb 2013, he was Deputy Secretary General of Office of Medical Innovation, Cabinet Secretariat of Japan, and led health policy issues regarding life science.
Dr Fujiwara has authored or co-authored over 280 original articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology. He is an active member of American Society of Clinical Oncology (between 2003 and 2006, he was International Affairs Committee’s member), and Board Member of Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (JSMO) (He was the President of 2019 JSMO annual meeting, held in Kyoto). He is on the Editorial Board of Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology; Cancer Science; Investigation New Drugs; Asian-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology; Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology.