Keith Edward Anderson

It’s with great sadness the family of Keith Edward Anderson, 54, of Henderson, NV announce his recent passing. Keith was born to Edward and Janet Anderson in Calgary, AB and soon after moved to St. Albert, AB where he spent his young years and then continued onto the University of Alberta where he graduated in 1998 with a PhD in Pharmaceuticals and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Keith devoted the entire 25 years of his career to developing and improving lifesaving and life changing medicines. Products that Keith and his teams developed are currently treating patients with cancer, liver and gastrointestinal diseases. Most recently, Keith served as Senior Vice President with Sierra Oncology where he and his team developed momelotinib, a treatment for significant unmet medical needs of myelofibrosis patients with anemia. The product was acquired by GSK in 2022 and may be approved by US FDA as early as June 2023.

Keith joined Sierra in 2015 following Genentech Roche’s acquisition of Seragon Pharmaceuticals where he was Vice President, Pharmaceutical Sciences. Prior to that Keith served as Chief Operation Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Ocera Therapeutics and as Senior Director, Product Development with Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Keith began his career as a Research Chemist with Novo Nordisk in Denmark after earning his PhD. Keith is the author of numerous scientific papers and holds 5 patents. From 2013 up to the pandemic, he was an invited lecturer at the Georgetown-Howard University Centre for Clinical and Transitional Sciences masters programs in Drug Development.

Dr. Anderson was a brilliant, collaborative scientist and mentor, though he would resist being referred to as “Doctor”. What mattered most to Keith was helping patients, good science and being a helpful member of the team. He was loved and respected by all that had the privilege of working with him and fruits of his work live on to help patients and colleagues.

There will be celebrations of life held in San Diego (California, USA), Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) and St. Albert (Alberta, Canada) in May 2023. Please send an email to [email protected] to receive information on how to RSVP, and further details on the events and locations.