Pfizer, Valneva and CureVac are all welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Pfizer and Valneva make new appointments, while Astra Zeneca's CEO receives a British knighthood.
Steffen Thirstrup has been appointed as Chief Medical Officer of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
In this role, he will provide scientific leadership across EMA and its scientific committees to reinforce the Agency’s capacity to respond to public health challenges and emergencies, and shape EMA’s contribution to EU-health initiatives such as the fight against antimicrobial resistance or Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. He will also be EMA’s “medical voice” with external stakeholders and explain the considerations that underpin EMA’s regulatory decisions on the benefits and risks of medicinal products.
Prof. Thirstrup is a medical doctor with a PhD in pharmacology and broad clinical experience in general internal medicine. He previously led the Division for Medicines Assessment and Clinical Trials at the Danish Health and Medicines Authority and was the Danish member of EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP). He was also a member of EMA’s Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT), the Chairperson of the CHMP’s Respiratory Drafting Group and Co-Chair of the European Commission Working Group on Market Access of Biosimilars.
Prof. Thirstrup is Affiliate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and has worked across a broad range of therapeutic areas throughout different stages of medicine development. Before joining EMA, Prof. Thirstrup worked at the pharmaceutical consultancy company NDA Group, first as a medical advisor and from April 2014 as a board director.
Annaliesa Anderson, Ph.D., has been appointed as Senior Vice President and Head of Pfizer’s Vaccine Research & Development (R&D) organization, effective August 1.
Anderson will succeed Kathrin U. Jansen, Ph.D., who is retiring from Pfizer.
Over the last two years, Dr. Anderson has led Pfizer’s team of infectious disease biologists that validated and delivered to an emergency use authorization Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets), Pfizer’s novel COVID-19 oral treatment.
With more than two decades of biopharmaceutical R&D experience, Dr. Anderson most recently served as Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Bacterial Research and Hospital within the Vaccine R&D organization. Under her leadership, Pfizer advanced into clinical development or approval bacterial vaccine programs directed at the prevention of diseases due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Group B Streptococcus, Neisseria meningitidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium difficile.
Dr. Anderson joined Pfizer via Wyeth in 2007. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Anderson worked at Merck Research Laboratories where she founded its prokaryotic bio-combinatorial engineering laboratory and initiated a bacterial vaccine program. Dr. Anderson earned her doctorate in Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick in the field of microbial ecology and then completed two post-doctoral fellowships. A Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Dr. Anderson has an extensive publication and patent portfolio in the areas of vaccine research and development, anti-infective research and development, bacterial surveillance, immunopathogenicity and microbial ecology.
Pfizer’s Vaccine R&D organization includes nearly 1,000 colleagues focused on advancing leading platforms for vaccine discovery and development. Pfizer is developing an industry-leading portfolio of bacterial, viral, and maternal vaccines including candidates against pediatric pneumococcal disease, C. difficile infection, meningococcal disease in adolescents, Group B Streptococcus, Lyme disease and maternal and adult vaccination for respiratory syncytial virus.
Joseph Philipose has joined Emergent BioSolutions as Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer.
Reporting to Executive Vice President of Global Quality and Ethics and Compliance Coleen Glessner, Philipose will lead Emergent’s ethics and compliance function on an enterprise level. He joins Emergent from Alexion Pharmaceuticals where he most recently served as the Vice President of U.S. and enterprise compliance.
French vaccine company Valneva has appointed vaccine experts Dr. Thomas Decker and Dr. Michael Pfleiderer to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
Dr. Thomas Decker is a professor of Immunobiology at the Max Perutz Labs of the University of Vienna. His experience as an immunobiologist stems from more than 30 years of research and teaching in Germany, Sweden, Austria and the USA, with a focus on the molecular aspects of immunity to infection. During his career, Dr. Decker also served as a consultant for several pharmaceutical companies. He was Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Genetics of the University of Vienna until 2009 and is the current president of the European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society (EMDS). He is also a member of the editorial boards for the scientific journals Molecular and Cellular Biology and Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Dr. Michael Pfleiderer is an internationally renowned expert in regulatory affairs and development of vaccines. He is a biologist by training and holds a Ph.D. in molecular virology. Since 1998, Dr. Pfleiderer had been the Head of the Human Viral Vaccines Section at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), German Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines. He was responsible for all issues related to vaccine licensing and regulation, for batch testing and release of vaccines as well as inspection-related aspects. As an ex-regulator, Dr. Pfleiderer has in-depth regulatory experience, including leading decision-making processes on the benefit-risk ratio of vaccines and on regulatory, legal and administrative issues related to vaccine applications. Dr. Pfleiderer significantly contributed to numerous EMA and WHO guidelines on scientific and regulatory issues related to vaccines.
Chaired by Dr. Ralf Clemens, PhD, Valneva’s SAB includes Dr. Norman Baylor, PhD; Dr. Anna Durbin, MD; Dr. George R. Siber, MD, PhD; and Dr. Alexander von Gabain, PhD.
AstraZeneca CEO, Pascal Soriot, has received a British knighthood for services to UK life sciences and leadership in the global response to the COVID pandemic in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022.
“I am truly humbled by this recognition,” said Soriot. “Growing up in France, I had many dreams and hopes for the future, but I never thought I would receive a knighthood from Her Majesty the Queen. As an Australian citizen it is a great privilege to receive this award and an honour to work with so many outstanding people around the world dedicated to following the science in order to bring medicines to patients. This recognition is also theirs and I would like to thank each of them for their commitment to our mission. I am also grateful to my family for their support in enabling me to pursue a career doing what I love.”
Since joining AstraZeneca a decade ago, Pascal is credited with leading a turnaround that makes the UK-headquartered company a scientific world leader having launched multiple innovative medicines, expanded its geographic presence globally, and established R&D facilities around the world including its new, state-of-the-art Discovery Centre in Cambridge, UK. Today, the company enjoys the second largest market capitalisation on the London Stock Exchange with the share price quadrupling over the last 10 years.
At the outset of the pandemic the company made its COVID-19 vaccine available at no profit and the vast majority of doses supplied since then have been at cost. Three billion doses have now been delivered to more than 180 countries with approximately two-thirds going to low- and lower-middle-income countries. AstraZeneca continues to play a leading role in changing the course of the pandemic through the continued supply and distribution of the vaccine as well as Evusheld, a long-acting antibody combination designed to protect the most vulnerable people who are immuno-compromised and do not develop a response to COVID-19 vaccination.
Alongside leading AstraZeneca, Pascal is also driving change across the healthcare sector and beyond.
In championing the Health Systems Taskforce of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, established by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Pascal is working with global leaders on actions to accelerate the delivery of net zero, sustainable healthcare. He is also joint-Chair of the UK Life Sciences Council.
German mRNA specialist CureVac has appointed Myriam Mendila as Chief Development Officer.
Klaus Edvardsen left the role at the end of last month; and Ulrike Gnad-Vogt, Senior Vice President Area Head Oncology, will act as interim Chief Development Officer until Mendila takes up the role in February 2023.
Mendila has more than 20 years of global experience in product development, medical affairs, pharmacovigilance and healthcare compliance as well as global product strategy, including commercial strategy at Roche, Genentech and Novartis. Over the last 5 years, she has held the position of Worldwide Head of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Oncology at Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland where she drives and oversees the development and cross-functional execution of the long-range global medical affairs vision and strategy for the Novartis oncology portfolio. Myriam earned her medical degree and subsequently doctoral degree from the Medical University of Hanover, Germany.
Ulrike Gnad-Vogt, Senior Vice President Area Head Oncology at CureVac, is responsible for defining, building and executing CureVac’s oncology strategy and will serve as interim Chief Development Officer. Ulrike joined CureVac in 2011 as Head of Clinical Development and served as Chief Medical Officer from 2013-2019, before transitioning to her current role. Prior to joining CureVac, Ulrike held positions as an oncologist at the National Center for Tumor Diseases in Heidelberg and as Global Medical Leader at Merck KGaA, where she focused on early clinical development of cancer vaccines and immune cytokines. Ulrike holds a medical degree from the University of Homburg/Saar.