Chief Executive, President, Arcutis Biotherapeutics
Watanabe has been the president of Arcutis Biotherapeutics since 2016, and became chief executive the following year. The company’s dermatology drug development platform focuses on unmet needs in the treatment of immune-mediated skin diseases, including plaque psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis and scalp psoriasis. Prior to starting at Arcutis, Watanabe was co-founder and chief operating officer at Kanan Therapeutics, a cardiovascular drug development company, and before that he served as vice president of strategy and corporate development at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals. From 2005 to 2013, Watanabe was an executive at Amgen, where he was involved in the development of Repatha and Aimovig.