Jerry Temko
Vice president, general counsel and compliance officer
Astellas Pharma Europe
With an in-house career at pharma companies spanning more than 20 years, Jerry Temko is one of the most experienced GCs in the sector.
With experience comes proportionate lawyering and commercial risk management and Temko says the secret to his success in his role is ‘establishing the right balance between commercial risk and legal protection and compliance, which is just a skill developed over time’. He took on the main legal role when two Japanese pharma companies – Fujisawa and Yamanouchi – merged to form Astellas Pharma Europe in 2005. Since then Temko has rarely felt the need to tinker with his preferred line-up of panel firms.
‘Our focus is more on the ongoing performance of individual lawyers at the firms we use and we would never forsake longstanding relationships for short-term economies,’ he says.
Law firms used: Arnold & Porter, Covington & Burling, Hoffmann Eitle, Mayer Brown, Osborne Clarke, Wragge & Co
2008-present: Vice president, general counsel and compliance officer, Astellas Pharma Europe
2005-08: General counsel and chief compliance officer, Astellas Pharma Europe
2003-05: General counsel Europe, Yamanouchi
1999-2003: Division senior counsel, Invensys
1989-99: Senior international attorney, Wyeth