He began his career at Merck & Co., Inc., designing and overseeing clinical trials of COX-2 inhibitors for the treatment of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Subsequently, he joined Sankyo Pharma Development, Inc., and played a key role in metabolic and immunomodulatory drug development. Continuing at Daiichi Sankyo, post-merger, Ken held several positions of increasing responsibility, including global head of translational medicine and clinical pharmacology, and therapeutic area head for internal medicine. His experience has spanned INDs through NDAs, and he has been a major contributor to drug approvals in areas of inflammation, pain, and type-2 diabetes mellitus, and of a direct Factor Xa inhibitor for prevention of venous thromboembolism and stroke.