Takeda's Deborah Dunsire Is Taking on Cancer

When Deborah Dunsire took over as chief executive officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in 2005, the Cambridge (Mass.) company had only one drug on the market—the blood-cancer treatment Velcade—and sales growth was slowing. Worse, the drug, an intravenous therapy used to treat multiple myeloma, was about to face competition from a pill made by Celgene. Dunsire boosted marketing and research and eventually got regulatory approval for broader use of Velcade. Over the next two years, sales of the drug jumped by 38 percent.

That performance drew plenty of attention in the industry. In 2008, Osaka-based Takeda Pharmaceutical acquired Millennium for $8.9 billion. Takeda's top seller, diabetes treatment Actos, will face generic competitors next year, and Takeda was attracted by Dunsire's success with Velcade. In her previous job at Novartis (NVS) she had overseen the launch of the blockbuster leukemia treatment Gleevec. "She is a great asset" says Takeda CEO Yasuchika Hasegawa. "She has a proven track record and great leadership ability."