Dr. Sarah I. Sheikh holds dual responsibilities at Takeda as the Head of Global Development spanning all therapeutic areas and as the Head of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area. She is a physician-scientist with more than 20 years of experience in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, with end-to-end research and development experience, from bench research, through translation and development to approvals and direct patient care. She is driven to impact patient health by turning ground-breaking scientific discoveries into transformative medicines for patients with few or no treatment options.

Before joining Takeda in 2019, she held positions at Biogen and Celgene in roles spanning Neuroscience and Immunology clinical development, strategy, and program leadership where she made important contributions to the development and approval of several medicines, including Tecfidera, Plegridy and Ozanimod, which are now used by patients across the world.

Recognizing that drug development in areas of great unmet need in any therapeutic area is the ultimate team sport has led to her deep interest in high performing multi-disciplinary teams both within the industry as well as across academia and industry. Examples of this have included leading a holistic effort in clinical development acceleration and quality improvement, from protocol to filing, and founding and directing industry-academic fellowship programs providing fellows with ‘hands-on’ drug development experience and mentorship.

Dr. Sheikh received an MSc in Cell Physiology and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, BM BCh, from the University of Oxford, Corpus Christi College. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Oxford where she was also a clinical tutor. She completed a neurology residency and fellowship in neuromuscular neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, where she also took on responsibilities as an attending physician and instructor in medicine. She currently serves on the Board of Target ALS and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London.