Prior to becoming Vice President, Device Technologies, Bill Rich’s responsibilities included managing all regional supply chain activities including local manufacturing for regions outside of North America, including Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. He was also responsible for alliance management.
Bill joined Amgen in 1989 as a Senior Biostatistician and held positions of increasing responsibility in the Department of Biostatistics through 1992. During his tenure in the Biostatics, he led a team responsible for the worldwide submission and approval of Neupogen for the treatment of Severe Chronic Neutropenia.
In 1993 Bill was named Clinical Studies Management Team Leader – Neupogen, where he was responsible for the clinical development of Neupogen for use in infectious diseases such as HIV. Bill was appointed Product Development Team Leader for Kineret in 1997. In this role he was responsible for the development and implementation of worldwide strategies to move Kineret through clinical development, product registration and commercialization.
Bill moved on to Director of Operations planning in 2000, the group responsible for developing and implementing a global operations plan that is aligned with the corporate product strategy plan for each of Amgen’s pipeline and in-line products. During his tenure, the department launched three new products worldwide.
Between 2002 and 2006, Bill held leadership positions with increasing responsibilities in R&D and Operations. In 2006, Bill began managing a global operations team in support of Amgen’s international expansion, where he assumed responsibilities for Operations at Amgen KK, Amgen’s Japanese affiliate. In 2008, Amgen decided to divest the AKK group and to partner our products in Japan with local pharmaceutical companies. At this time Bill created the Operation Alliance Management function.
Prior to joining Amgen, Bill worked at ICI Stuart pharmaceuticals, Allergan and the Children’s Cancer Study Group.