Takeda Breaks Tradition in Naming Outsider as Heir Apparent

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., the more than 230-year-old Japanese drugmaker, is starting to make a practice of breaking with tradition.

The company last week named Christophe Weber, a 47-year-old French national who has never worked at Takeda, as chief operating officer and the planned successor to Chief Executive Officer Yasuchika Hasegawa. Weber would be the first non-Japanese to lead the drugmaker and among the first outsiders brought in to helm a major Japanese company.