Dr. Daniel Billen, Vice-President & General Manager, launched Amgen in Canada in 1991. Since that time, the company has grown to almost 400 employees across the country and enjoys half a billion dollars in revenues. Amgen Canada Inc. is the Canadian division of the world’s leading biotechnology company, Amgen Inc. Overall Canadian operations includes clinical development and scientific affairs, regulatory and government affairs, and marketing and sales.

At Amgen Canada, Dr. Billen has built a place where people can realize their full potential, where they succeed, are highly motivated and contribute on many levels. “Every job at Amgen is important, and every Amgen staff member is important. We attract diverse, capable and committed people and we provide an environment that fosters inclusion, respect, and individuality, one that values diversity.”

Amgen science has generated important medical discoveries, resulting in medicines that have helped millions of patients fight cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other serious illnesses. Dr. Billen built Amgen Canada based on a mission to serve patients. “We focus on the basic tenet of biotechnology: discover what’s wrong at the most fundamental level – cellular or molecular – and develop a way to fix it. Amgen products are developed not just for symptoms, but to treat the disease itself.”

Prior to joining Amgen in 1991, Dr. Billen held positions of increasing responsibility at Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

A native of Sint-Truiden, Belgium, Dr. Billen earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Louvain University in 1978.

Dr. Billen is a sponsor of World Vision Canada and lives in Mississauga with his wife and three children.