Philadelphia, PA – Plexus Ventures LLC, a leading global pharmaceutical business development consultancy, announced today that Dr. Chika Yoshinaga has joined the firm as Senior Consultant. Dr. Yoshinaga comes to Plexus Ventures with a breadth of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Yoshinaga was born and educated in China, earning her M.D. at Shanghai Medical University. After several years of clinical practice at a major Shanghai hospital, Dr. Yoshinaga left to pursue a Master of Science in Bio-Engineering at Yokohama (Japan) National University. During this time, she worked at a research institute to develop and implement a medical examination data system. From there, Dr. Yoshinaga joined NIF SMBC Ventures Co, Ltd., the second largest venture capital firm in Japan, where she headed the European life sciences area and directed equity investments in a number of firms that achieved successful exits. Dr. Yoshinaga moved to Sofinnova Partners, one of the largest and oldest European venture capital firms, to become Chief Representative of their Shanghai office where she set strategy for investing in China-based firms, including development-stage, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Dr. Yoshinaga returned to Japan to work for Quintiles in a new ventures capacity, responsible for identifying equity investments and M&A transactions to drive growth of the core business in Japan and China.
Dr. Yoshinaga has acquired a deep knowledge and understanding of the Chinese healthcare market, including the R&D, regulatory and commercial environments. She has developed a broad network of contacts at Chinese, Japanese and European companies to facilitate successful collaborations. Dr. Yoshinaga speaks fluent Chinese, Japanese and English.