Kenneth E. Goodwill, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences

Primary Responsibilities:

Dr. Goodwill is Takeda San Diego's (TSD's) Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He leads Process Chemistry and Chemistry Manufacturing and Control (CMC) research and development activities. Dr. Goodwill creates strategies in multiple CMC disciplines such as chemical development, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) scale-up, analytical methods, formulation, and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) API and Drug Product manufacturing. His role emphasizes work in two key areas: scale up of compounds for manufacturing and creating a dosing form of a compound that can be administered to patients in clinical trials.

Experience:

Prior to Takeda San Diego, Dr. Goodwill worked at UCLA as a Research Faculty Member in the Molecular Biology Institute focusing on protein crystallography. During that time, Dr. Goodwill was a founder of a start-up called "Protein Pathways," a company focused on drug target identification. Before his work at UCLA, Dr. Goodwill worked for the bioinformatics software start-up company, Pangaea Systems in Oakland, California. In between his undergraduate and graduate education, he also held a variety of positions at Bio-Rad Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts, mainly focusing on product development and technical marketing for laser scanning confocal microscopes. These machines are used for biomedical research and are in some ways similar to the crystallography technology used by TSD today. Dr. Goodwill joined Syrrx (now TSD) in January of 2001, marking his third encounter with a small start-up company. Dr. Goodwill's role and responsibilities have grown over the years and his work has contributed significantly to the success of TSD.

Education:

• B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology
• Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley

Accomplishments:

Dr. Goodwill received Takeda's "President's Award" in 2004 for his work on SYR-322 and other DPP-IV inhibiting compounds for the treatment of diabetes. For this project, Dr. Goodwill and his team were able to complete their task of scaling up the compound through Phase III supplies in approximately half the time it would usually take for such a project. Because of this achievement, clinical trials were able to proceed at an accelerated rate, leading to the rapid development of the drug.

Awards:

• Predoctoral Fellow of the American Heart Associate, California Affiliate
• Takeda President's Award, 2004

In my own words:

• Aspirations for the Group I Lead:

  • I view my group's role as providing an essential service to the rest of the organization. Our "customers" for the scale up and formulation of compounds are the toxicology group, development group, and clinicians. We are tasked with delivering our product on schedule and with very high quality. My aspiration for us is to work as a team both quickly and efficiently in order to deliver for our customers downstream. Our group works together very well, and also works well with other key stake-holders such as medicinal chemistry. There is respect for one another and we allow each person to maximize their skills and contributions. I think people in the group appreciate the teamwork. Effective teamwork is very important to me and is a goal we continually work towards.

• Why I Chose My Profession:

  • I chose my profession because I am a firm believer in the benefit of medicines to human health and because I enjoy the challenge of being successful in doing something that is, in my view, quite difficult. We often take medicines for granted, but they make a huge impact. My parents are healthier than my grandparents, due in large part to the benefits of the medicines they take. My mother survived breast cancer because of advances in chemotherapy and surgery, and my father defended himself against a family history of heart disease through medicines that were available to him.

• Favorite Quote:
  • If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. — George S. Patton

    This quote addresses the issue of my group accomplishing our goal in the allotted amount of time. We can only do that if we really think about our goals up front and address questions like "What are the things that I need to worry about so that I'm not surprised down the road by something that I didn't think about?" I think a big part of our ability to be successful is if we can worry about the right things in the beginning, not overlook risks, and try to understand what might be around the corner so that we don't face failure in the future. As a manager, my job is to plan well, anticipate risks, and provide leadership so that the people that work for me can be successful.

• The Other Side of Me:

  • I am passionate about all things relating to people and science. The development of medicines at Takeda is a product of science for the benefit of people. I am also very interested in economics as a study of how people interact with money, psychology, and management. I read about it on the weekends because it keeps my mind active. In a way, economics is something like drug development because it is very difficult to get right. For example, if you ask ten economists the same question, you'll get ten different answers. But in the end, there are right answers and wrong answers. Other than that, I enjoy swimming and hiking and just being outdoors.