Ms Elias has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Prior to joining Arcutis in 2019, she led the study management group within clinical operations at Kite Pharma, and served as the clinical operations lead on the pivotal Phase II study which resulted in US and EU market approval of Yescarta®. Previously, she worked in clinical operations at Amgen, Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline. She started her career in clinical nursing, and practiced for 10 years before joining the industry. She received her Bachelor of Science in nursing at Cedar Crest College.
Ms Merritt has almost 30 years of experience in global regulatory strategy development and regulatory agency interface, regulatory submissions, and regulatory compliance across all phases of drug development and multiple therapeutic areas, including dermatology. Prior to joining Arcutis in 2017, she was the founder and principal of PharmaReg Consulting, LLC, where she supported smaller pharma and biotech companies with IND-stage development and preparation of NDAs. Previously, she spent more than 20 years at Merck & Co. where she contributed to the global registration of numerous therapies and led strategic and organizational transformation initiatives. Ms Merritt received her BS in biology from Albright College and her MBA from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.
Dr Berk is a board-certified pediatric dermatologist. Prior to joining Arcutis in 2019, he was section head for medical dermatology at Allergan, Inc. Previously, he was in academic practice as an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and has authored more than 100 publications. He completed his dermatology residency at Washington University in St. Louis and his fellowship training in pediatric dermatology at Stanford University, received his MD from Stanford University, and received his AB (summa cum laude) in molecular biology from Princeton University.
Mr Watanabe has been the president of Arcutis since 2016, and chief executive officer since 2017. Prior to joining Arcutis, he was co-founder and chief operating officer of Kanan Therapeutics, a cardiovascular drug development company, and before that, was vice president of strategy and corporate development at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals.
Mr Watanabe was an executive at Amgen, Inc. from 2005 to 2013, where he was involved in the development of Repatha® for hyperlipidemia and Aimovig® for migraine, and worked on the US marketing of Enbrel® in both dermatology and rheumatology. Previously, he was an executive with Eli Lilly and Company, and an official in the US government. He was also a commissioned officer in the US Navy Reserves for 25 years. He formerly served on the board of Amunix Pharmaceuticals. Mr Watanabe earned his MA in national security studies, and his BA in international relations, both at Georgetown University.
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