Astellas Pharma Inc. announced two recent senior-level promotions and one new hire within its Medical and Development (M&D) organization. Steven Benner, was promoted to president and Head of Development; Zhonghong Eric Guan, M.D., joined Astellas as the senior vice president and Head of Medical Affairs, Americas; and Andrew Krivoshik, M.D. was promoted to senior vice president and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head. Prior to his recent promotion, Benner served as senior vice president and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head. He was responsible for providing global leadership for Astellas Oncology across numerous clinical programs in areas such as prostate cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, gastroesophageal cancer and bladder cancer, among others. Prior to joining Astellas, Benner served in senior leadership positions in clinical development, compliance and licensing at Cell Therapeutics Inc., OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, PDL BioPharma and Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as academic appointments at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In his new role as senior vice president and Head of MA, Americas, Guan will report directly to Charlotte Kremer executive vice president and Head of MA. He will assume overall responsibility for the strategic direction of the MA Americas organization, including continued medical support of in-line products and late-stage development compounds, and translation of medical and patient insights into actionable strategies for Astellas' global medical teams. In his new role as senior vice president and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Krivoshik will report directly to Benner, president and Head of Development. He will assume overall responsibility for the strategic direction of Astellas' Oncology Therapy Area and advancement and delivery of the oncology pipeline. Prior to his recent promotion, Krivoshik served as vice president of Medical Science, Oncology, where he was responsible for leading a group of medical oncology development physicians.