Dr. Thomas Kakuda, Pharm.D. is Scientific Director of Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics at Janssen Pharmaceuticals within Johnson & Johnson. At Janssen, Dr. Kakuda has supported the infectious diseases and global public health therapeutic areas for the past 18 years focusing on developing novel antiviral therapies for dengue, HBV, HCV, HIV, influenza, RSV, and other viral infections.
Dr. Kakuda received his Pharm.D. from the University of Pacific, completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency at the National Institutes of Health, and an Infectious Diseases Clinical Pharmacology Fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Courtney Fletcher, Pharm.D. at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Kakuda has done extensive work on understanding antiretroviral pharmacology including the development of darunavir (Prezista/Prezcobix), etravirine (Intelence), and simeprevir (Olysio). Current projects include JNJ-64281802 (dengue NS4B inhibitor) and JNJ-73763989 (a fixed-dose combination of two HBV short interfering RNAs [siRNAs]). Dr. Kakuda is primarily responsible for the development and implementation of phase 1 studies and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analyses related to the compounds. He leads the drug interaction and oligonucleotide subject matter expert teams within Janssen and participates in the IQ Consortium Nucleic Acids Working group.
