Kikuo Yasui is Chief Operating Officer at Heartseed Inc., a Tokyo-based clinical stage biotech developing iPSC-derived purified cardiomyocytes. He works on corporate planning, business development, organizational development, commercial readiness as well as IP strategy and operational excellence of translational research and clinical development. Since he joined Heartseed in 2019, he has been involved in pre-clinical studies including tumorigenicity and proarrhythmic study, pharmacological studies using pigs and NHPs, manufacturing process development, discussion with regulatory authorities for IND, and development of clinical strategy and clinical trial design. Heartseed announced first patient dosing at Phase 1/2 clinical trial (LAPiS study) in February 2023. He led the Series B financing in 2019 and global license agreement of the lead pipeline HS-001, allogeneic iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes spheroids with Novo Nordisk, announced in June 2021. He also has an expertise in pricing, reimbursement and access though his experience of launching various innovative products when he was in pharma industry, and published a peer reviewed article about the cost-effusiveness analysis of IFN-free HCV regimens. Before joining Heartseed, he held various managerial positions at AbbVie (ex-Abbott), including Business Unit Manager, Immunology, Group Manager, Market Access and Group Manager, Commercial Development. He started his career at Bain & Company, a global strategic consulting firm and graduated with a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo, the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.