About

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Amgen’s Japan and Asia Pacific (JAPAC) region focuses on bringing innovative medicines to help patients across 14 markets, including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Southeast Asia. John Neu is the regional general counsel for JAPAC and associate general counsel at Amgen and leads a team of nine lawyers, including himself. The regional general counsel and a regional counsel who also support the Southeast Asia region are based in Hong Kong. In addition, Amgen has two lawyers in each of China and Japan, and one lawyer in each of South Korea, Taiwan and Australia. The lawyers in each location are supported by an administrative coordinator. Amgen’s footprint in the region has expanded significantly in recent years and its business continues to grow. As a result, the JAPAC legal team has more than doubled in size since 2016, including adding counsels in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. They also welcomed new lead counsels in China and Japan within the past year. The JAPAC legal team is focused on helping Amgen bring innovative medicines and biosimilars to patients, which has led to an expanding company footprint in the region. The team has supported the build out of local capabilities, including establishing and further developing the local in-house legal function in various countries in the region. ‘As a team, we have also worked together to develop legal support models that are fully integrated and aligned with the business, sustainably lean, scalable for a growing organisation and strategic about how to maximise our overall impact’, Neu says. The legal team has also supported Amgen’s efforts to advocate a “Predict and Prevent” ecosystem which leads to better health outcomes, lower costs and better quality of life. ‘This is of particular importance to the region, due to its rapidly ageing population and the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, from cancer and osteoporosis to cardiovascular diseases’, Neu explains. In support of Amgen’s mission to serve patients consistent with Amgen’s values, ‘we are committed to providing high-quality legal work, trusted strategic and tactical advice, and wise judgment to bring medicines from discovery to the market, to make Amgen a good investment for shareholders, and to be the best place to work for our staff’, he states.