Galien week of innovation

Alexandra von Plato serves as CEO of Publicis Health, where she is responsible for launching and leading a portfolio of pioneering health and wellness communication firms, including Digitas Health, Razorfish Health, and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. She has overseen the development of groundbreaking marketing and communications programs for leading life sciences, biotech, consumer, and wellness companies, including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, Merck, Nestlé, and Walmart.

Alex’s expertise in healthcare communications and marketing have made her a sought-after contributor at industry-leading events, including TEDMED, Cannes Lions, CES Digital Health Summit, Galien Forum, Advertising Women of New York, and Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

She serves on the board of ChristianaCare Hospital and has been recognized as Woman of the Year by the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and as a Champion of Hope by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; named among Campaign US’s 40 Over 40; the PharmaVoice 100; and honored as a Health Influencer, Hall of Femme, and Pinnacle Award inductee by MM&M.

Dr Crooke is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of n-Lorem, a nonprofit foundation focused on providing treatments for patients with nano-rare disease patients (1 to 30 patients worldwide), which he initiated in January 2020. Prior to n- Lorem, Dr. Crooke founded and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Lead Scientist of Ionis Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at Ionis, he led the scientific development of a new platform for drug discovery, antisense technology and the creation of one of the largest and more advanced development pipelines in the biotechnology industry, and commercialized several antisense drugs including, Spinraza, Tegsedi and others. Early in Dr. Crooke’s career, he led the creation of the first broad anticancer program in the industry at Bristol-Myers, bringing numerous anticancer drugs to the market in the first five years of his career. He then assumed responsibility for worldwide R&D (president) at SmithKline Beckman (now GSK). During his tenure at SKB, Dr. Crooke led the restructuring of R&D and the development of several drugs that were commercialized.

Dr. Crooke has also contemporaneously led a successful academic career becoming a full professor at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School where he trained a number of PhD students and won several teaching awards. Dr. Crooke has been an active scientist throughout his career as well.

Dr. Crooke has received a number of awards, most recently, Prix Galein Roy Vagellos Pro Bono Humanum Award, the American Chemical Society’s E.B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances, the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, the Scrip Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2019 Massry Prize. Dr. Crooke received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees and house staff training at Baylor College of Medicine and has been an active scientist throughout his career. In 2021, Dr. Crooke has been named Distinguished Alumnus of both Baylor College of Medicine’s Graduate and Medical schools and named one of the 20 of the most influential biopharma R&D executives by Endpoints News. He has published nearly 600 scientific publications, edited more than 20 books, has numerous patents, and led the development of more than 23 drugs that have been commercialized.

Dr. Harold (Hal) L. Paz is a nationally renowned healthcare leader with a unique combination of expertise in both academic medicine and industry. As the first executive vice president of Health Sciences at Stony Brook University, and CEO of Stony Brook University Medicine, Dr. Paz leads a premier academic health enterprise that includes five health sciences schools, four hospitals and more than 230 ambulatory healthcare settings throughout Long Island.

Prior to this role, Dr. Paz was executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs at The Ohio State University and chief executive officer of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Before joining OSU, Dr. Paz was executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health/Aetna where he led clinical strategy and policy at the intersection of all of Aetna’s domestic and global businesses. In addition, he was professor adjunct of internal medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and clinically active in pulmonary medicine at the West Haven (CT) VA Hospital. Prior to joining Aetna in 2014, Dr. Paz served as president and CEO of the Penn State Hershey Health System, senior vice president for health affairs at the Pennsylvania State University, and dean of its College of Medicine for eight years. Before his appointment at Penn State, he spent eleven years as dean of the (Rutgers) Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Group. He has served on a number of health care and biotechnology boards and is currently a member of the of the National Academy of Medicine Leadership Consortium and the board of directors of Research!America.

Dr. Paz received his bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester, a master of science in life science engineering from Tufts University, and his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He completed his residency at Northwestern University, where he served as chief medical resident. Dr. Paz was a Eudowood Fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In addition, he was a post-doctoral fellow in environmental health science at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Dr. Michael Rosenblatt’s career has been in academia, pharma and biotech/venture. He is a physician-scientist, now advising biotech and pharma companies, as well as serving on boards.

Most recently, he was Chief Medical Officer of Flagship Pioneering, a Cambridge, MA-based firm that creates innovative biotech companies (Moderna is an example). Previously he was Merck’s Chief Medical Officer. He also served as Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, and before that, Robert Ebert Professor of Molecular Medicine and George R. Minot Professor at Harvard Medical School.

He was President of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

He graduated summa cum laude from Columbia, and received his M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard. Internship, residency, and endocrinology training were all at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Katrina Armstrong, MD, leads Columbia University’s medical campus as the Chief Executive Officer of CUIMC, which includes the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S), the School of Nursing, the College of Dental Medicine, and the Mailman School of Public Health. She also is Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences for Columbia University and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

As VP&S dean, Dr. Armstrong leads the nation’s second oldest medical school and the first to award an MD degree. Trained as an epidemiologist, she is an internationally recognized investigator in health disparities, quality of care, and cancer prevention and outcomes, an award-winning teacher, and a practicing general internist. She has served on multiple advisory panels for academic and federal organizations and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Before joining Columbia, Dr. Armstrong was the Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Before joining Harvard, she was Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Associate Director of the Abramson Cancer Center, and Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

She is a graduate of Yale University (BA degree in architecture), Johns Hopkins (MD degree), and the University of Pennsylvania (MS degree in clinical epidemiology). She completed her residency training in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Barr is Senior Vice President, Global Clinical Development, Chief Medical Officer at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL).

He oversees Phase 2 to 5 development programs for pipeline and in-line products in the Cardiovascular, Diabetes/Endocrine/Metabolism, Immunology, Neurology, Oncology, Psychiatry, Respiratory, and Vaccines/Infectious Diseases therapeutic areas. He is the Chairperson of the Late Development Review Committee, the Governance Committee overseeing Phase 2 to 5 activities across the pipeline. MRL’s Global Medical and Scientific Affairs Organization also reports to him.

Dr. Barr joined Merck in 1995 and in 1998 became the head of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine clinical program. The program resulted in the first demonstration that prophylactic administration of a vaccine targeting HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 is highly effective in reducing cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancer risk and genital wart rates caused by these types. He also initiated the development of Merck’s next generation 9-valent HPV vaccine. Thereafter, Dr. Barr managed product development teams in Oncology and Infectious Diseases, and then became Therapeutic Area Head for Infectious Diseases in 2013. In 2016, Dr. Barr was appointed as Senior Vice President in charge of global clinical development of preventative/treatment approaches to Infectious Diseases at Merck. In 2018, he was named head of the Global Medical and Scientific Affairs. Organization.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Penn State University, Dr. Barr went on to earn his medical degree from the Jefferson Medical College in 1986 and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins. He subsequently pursued post-doctoral training at the University of Michigan and was on faculty at the University of Chicago prior to joining Merck.

William N. (Bill) Hait is Executive Vice President, Chief External Innovation, Medical Safety and Global Public Health Officer, and a member of the Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee. Bill oversees the Research and Development Management Committee that focuses on talent development and best-practice sharing within the Company’s R&D community, as well as Company efforts to advance mental health, improve healthcare for the world’s most vulnerable and underserved populations, and meet its obligations around product safety and ethical research, aligned with Our Credo.

Dr. Hait joined J&J in 2007 and served as Global Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology from 2009 to 2011, and then as Global Head, Janssen Research & Development, from 2011 through 2018. Before that, he was the founding Director of The (Rutgers) Cancer Institute of New Jersey. From 1993 to 2007 he was Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Associate Dean for Oncology Programs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey -- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Dr. Hait joined the Yale University School of Medicine faculty in 1984 and became Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, Chief of the Division of Medical Oncology, Associate Director of the Yale University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Director of the Breast Cancer Unit and Co-Director of the Lung Cancer Unit. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.

He devoted time to numerous advisory and editorial boards, served in a range of scientific functions, societies and committees, was elected President of the American Association for Cancer Research (2007 – 2008) and has received numerous awards and honors.

Ariel Katz is the CEO and Co-founder of H1, the connecting force for global HCP, clinical, scientific and research information. H1 works with the top Pharma and BioTech companies to deliver AI-powered insights to Medical Affairs and Clinical Operations to accelerate the discovery and engagement of industry experts, drive equitable research, access groundbreaking science, and get life saving treatments to patients faster. Ariel and team work directly with clients to help them apply healthcare data to solving vexing issues such as which treatments are the most promising, and which experts influence a particular market.

Ariel started his first company in college, ResearchConnection, to help connect students with research opportunities. That company grew to over 40 universities and was eventually acquired by the Jefferson Accelerator Fund, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ewing Kauffman Foundation.

Maha Radhakrishnan, M.D., is Group SVP and Chief Medical Officer, responsible for the Worldwide Medical function since rejoining Biogen in January 2020.

Previously, Maha was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Medical, Primary Care Business Unit at Sanofi, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health, from 2016-2019. At Sanofi, Dr. Radhakrishnan led the medical strategy and operations for the Diabetes and Cardiovascular products and development programs. She has also held several leadership roles at Bioverativ Inc. (2016-2018), Biogen for the first time from (2013-2016), Bristol Myers Squibb (2009-2013), United Health Group (2006-2008), and Cephalon (2005-2006).

Dr. Radhakrishnan has extensive experience in overseeing the external scientific engagement strategy with academic institutions, top and emerging key opinion leaders, patient advocacy groups, payers, and regulators.

Dr. Radhakrishnan received her M.D. in internal medicine with honors from the People’s Friendship University in Moscow, Russia in 1995 as well as a Master’s Degree in Russian language. She is also a certified Russian language instructor and interpreter.

During his time in Congress, Patrick J. Kennedy was the lead author of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), which requires insurers to cover treatment for mental health and substance use disorders no more restrictively than treatment for illnesses of the body, such as diabetes and cancer. In 2013, he founded The Kennedy Forum, a nonprofit that unites advocates, business leaders, and government agencies to advance evidence-based practices, policies, and programming in mental health and addiction. In 2015, Kennedy co-authored the New York Times Bestseller, A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction, which details a bold plan for the future of mental health care in America. In 2017, he was appointed to the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

Mr. Kennedy is also the founder of DontDenyMe.org, an educational campaign that empowers consumers and providers to understand parity rights and connects them to essential appeals guidance and resources; co-founder of One Mind, an organization that pushes for greater global investment in brain research; co-chair of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention National Response to COVID-19 (National Response); and co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Behavioral Health Integration Task Force.

Joel S. Marcus, JD, CPA, is the Executive Chairman and Founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), the REIT that pioneered life science real estate from a specialty niche to a mainstream asset class and today is the preeminent and longest-tenured owner, operator, and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, agtech, and technology campuses in AAA innovation clusters, including Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle.

Since co-founding the company in 1994 as a garage startup with $19 million in Series A capital and a mission to advance human health, he has led the remarkable growth of Alexandria into an S&P 500 company that as of June 30, 2022 has a total equity capitalization of $23.4 billion, ranking it in the top 10% among all publicly traded U.S. REITs.

Alexandria, which celebrated its 25th anniversary as an NYSE listed company in May 2022, has a total shareholder return exceeding 2,500% as of December 31, 2021. In 1996, Mr. Marcus founded Alexandria Venture Investments, the company’s strategic venture capital platform, and he continues to lead its investments in disruptive seed-, early-, and growth-stage life science, agrifoodtech, climate innovation, and technology companies.

Prior to co-founding Alexandria, he had an extensive legal career specializing in corporate finance and capital markets, venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions with special expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry. Mr. Marcus serves on the boards of directors of several public and private companies. He received his BA and JD from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Lynne Zydowsky is a seasoned life science industry executive with more than 20 years of experience in corporate development, operations and finance roles. She helped launch and build several successful companies. In 2003, she founded Zydowsky Consultants, a life science consulting practice. Prior to that, she was Co-Founder and COO of Renovis (now Evotec) and served as VP of Pharmaceutical Business Development at Exelixis.

A longstanding advocate for biomedical research and the advancement of global health, Dr. Zydowsky co-founded the Alexandria Summit in 2011 as a neutral, interactive platform to convene visionary stakeholders to drive the discovery and development of novel, cost-effective therapies, shape policy to advance life-saving innovation and address the urgent need to transform the healthcare system.

She earned her PhD in Chemistry from The Ohio State University, was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and has a BS in Pharmacy from Butler University.

Dr. Robert M. Califf was confirmed earlier this year as the 25th Commissioner of Food and Drugs.

As Commissioner, Dr. Califf oversees the full breadth of the FDA portfolio and execution of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and other applicable laws. This includes assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices; the safety and security of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation; and the regulation of tobacco products.

Dr. Califf has had a long and distinguished career as a physician, researcher, and leader in the fields of science and medicine. He is a nationally recognized expert in cardiovascular medicine, health outcomes research, health care quality, and clinical research, and a leader in the growing field of translational research, which is key to ensuring that advances in science translate into medical care.

This is Dr. Califf’s second stint as Commissioner. He also served in 2016 as the 22nd Commissioner. Before assuming the position at that time, he served as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco.
Prior to rejoining the FDA in 2022, Dr. Califf was head of medical strategy and Senior Advisor at Alphabet Inc., contributing to strategy and policy for its health subsidiaries Verily Life Sciences and Google Health. He joined Alphabet in 2019, after serving as a professor of medicine and vice chancellor for clinical and translational research at Duke University. He also served as director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and was the founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Dr. Califf is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a fellowship in cardiology at Duke.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, where he oversees an extensive research portfolio focused on infectious and immune-mediated diseases.

As the long-time chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, Dr. Fauci has made many seminal contributions in basic and clinical research and is one of the world’s most-cited biomedical scientists.

He was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved millions of lives throughout the developing world.

Poussot joined Wyeth in 1986 as general manager of Wyeth France. He became head of Wyeth Europe in 1991, president of Wyeth-Ayerst International in 1996, and, a year later, president of Wyeth Global Pharmaceuticals. In 2006, Poussot was elected president, and, in 2007, was appointed chief operating officer and elected to the Wyeth Board of Directors. In 20007, he served as chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president from 2008 until Wyeth's acquisition by Pfizer in October 2009 to create a World's Premier Biopharmaceutical Company.

Bernard Poussot strategy and commitment to scientific innovation has enabled Wyeth to build a diversified biopharmaceutical company with leadership in attractive growth areas such as vaccines, nutritional and biologics. Wyeth was early to see the potential of biotechnology to create life-changing medicines and had the number one biotechnology product in the world, Enbrel.

Poussot graduated from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris. He serves on the board of the Eisenhower Fellowships and is a member of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Currently, Bernard Poussot is a member of the Board of Directors of Roche Holding, In addition to Roche, he serves on the boards of the Cargill and Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience.

Bernard Poussot is a member of Legion of Honour (French: Légion d'honneur), the highest decoration in France, awarded by French President.

Bernard Poussot, and Bruno Cohen have founded 9 years ago a new Galien USA Awards category: to review the best startups. To that effect Bernard Poussot has assembled a jury whose members need no introduction owing to their impact on shaping our industry, the many star products coming out of their companies, their amazing collective experience & passion.

In 2020, Bernard Poussot, has been jury chair for the novel Digital Health Awards category. And this year, our responsibility of picking and valuing early innovation has been expanded to a Novel Award: the Prix Galien USA – Incubation/Accelerator Awards, This award illustrates the evolution of our industry and the need to embrace new innovation and collaboration models.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann is a physician scientist who has spent the past four decades as an innovator and leader in life sciences.

Dr. Desmond-Hellmann most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stepping down in January 2020 to become Senior Advisor and Board Member of the Gates Medical Research Institute. She joined the Board of Directors of Pfizer April, 2020, and began serving as Senior Advisor Google Ventures in May 2020.

She has served as a Senior Advisor at BDT Capital, LLC, a private investment firm, since October, 2017. Prior to joining The Gates Foundation in May 2014, she was the Chancellor at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) 2009-2014 where she remains an Adjunct Professor.
From 2004 through 2009, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann served as President of Product Development at Genentech, where she was responsible for pre-clinical and clinical development, business development, and product portfolio management. She joined Genentech in 1995.

Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann was associate director of clinical cancer research at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Dr. Desmond-Hellmann previously served as a member of the board of directors of Facebook 2013-2019 and The Procter & Gamble Company 2010-2016.
Dr. Desmond-Hellmann holds a B.S. in Pre-Med and an M.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno, and an M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley.

She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology

Petra Jantzer leads Accenture’s Life Sciences Business Globally and is the Account CEO for one of our largest global pharmaceutical clients worldwide. Her professional roots are in basic science, empowering her with the experience to also oversee Accenture’s European Life Sciences Research & Development Business. Petra’s mission is to support global Life Science Leaders in bringing innovative medicines to patients and ultimately achieve better health outcomes.

Dr. Jantzer has more than 20 years’ experience in the bio-pharmaceuticals sector, both as an advisor and as a researcher. She has profound industry and R&D knowledge (holding a PhD in immunology and an honors degree in molecular biology), deep business process understanding, and more than a decade of C-level counseling experience to help clients (digitally) transform their businesses.

Petra believes that diversity is critical to the success of companies, economies, and societies. This belief motivated her to co-found "Advance - gender equality in business", a cross-industry association of 120+ mostly blue-chip company members in Switzerland with a joint mission. She is honored to represent Switzerland in the G20 EMPOWER initiative to drive gender-equality globally.

Petra is a passionate people developer and firmly believes that leaders need to nurture the next generation of leadership to be better than the one before it. During her career, she has been a role model for gender equality in the workplace and beyond and is viewed as a strong force in fostering talent - both male and female.

Giovanni Caforio, MD, has been chief executive officer of Bristol Myers Squibb since May 2015 and has been serving on the company’s Board of Directors since June 2014. In May 2017, he assumed the role of chairman of the board.

As CEO, Giovanni has led the company’s focus on researching and developing transformational medicines, which includes a leading portfolio of immunotherapies that are fundamentally changing the way cancer is treated. Under his leadership, Bristol Myers Squibb is evolving its operating model, in order to increase speed and competitiveness.

With a background as a physician, Giovanni has helped strengthen the company’s patient-focused culture — one driven by innovation, speed, accountability and passion. As a leader, he is focused on the business value of a company culture that promotes and rewards diversity and inclusion.

Prior to becoming CEO, Giovanni served as chief operating officer with responsibility for leading a fully integrated worldwide commercial organization and the companywide functions of Enterprise Services and Global Manufacturing & Supply. This was preceded by his work as the company’s chief commercial officer.

Giovanni joined Bristol Myers Squibb in 2000 as vice president and general manager, Italy, in the Worldwide Medicines Group. He assumed added responsibility for Greece and Israel in 2001, and for South East Europe in 2003. In 2004, he was appointed senior vice president, European Marketing and Brand Commercialization. In 2007, he relocated to the U.S. to assume the role of senior vice president, U.S. Oncology. In 2010, he was named senior vice president, Global Commercialization, Oncology and Immunology, before becoming president of the company’s U.S. organization in 2011. Prior to joining Bristol Myers Squibb, Giovanni spent 12 years with Abbott Laboratories in a number of leadership positions.

Born and educated in Italy, Giovanni received his MD from the University of Rome.

Rob Davis is chief executive officer and president of Merck. Previously, Rob served as Merck’s president, responsible for the company’s operating divisions — Human Health, Animal Health, Manufacturing and Merck Research Laboratories. Prior to that, he was executive vice president, Global Services, and the company’s chief financial officer.

Rob joined the company as chief financial officer in 2014 with additional responsibility for real estate operations, corporate strategy and business development. In 2016, his role was expanded to include responsibility for information technology and procurement, forming Global Services. He became president in April 2021 and CEO and a member of the board of directors on July 1, 2021.

Prior to joining Merck, Rob was corporate vice president and president of Baxter’s Medical Products business. During his tenure at Baxter, he held several other positions, including president of Baxter’s Renal business, chief financial officer and treasurer. Before joining Baxter in 2004, Rob held numerous positions of increasing responsibility over 14 years at Eli Lilly and Company.

Rob serves on the board of directors for Duke Energy Corporation and is chair of its finance and risk management committee and a member of the corporate governance committee. In addition, Rob is a board member of Project Hope, a non-profit organization focused on empowering health care workers to deliver expert care when and where it is needed most.

Rob received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, his M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and his bachelor’s degree in finance from Miami University.

George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., has built Regeneron alongside CEO and President Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D., as its President and Chief Scientific Officer for the past 30 years. Yancopoulos is responsible for blockbusters such as EYLEA® (aflibercept) and Dupixent® (dupilumab) – for both, from initial concepts through approval. Yancopoulos is known for inventing foundational technologies that have enabled his drug discovery, including VelocImmune®, the leading human antibody or “HumAb” technology, in which mice are genetically-engineered to have genetically-humanized immune systems that can be used to make fully-human antibodies.

Yancopoulos is the son of Greek immigrants and a life-long New Yorker. Yancopoulos attended New York City public schools and graduated as valedictorian of the Bronx High School of Science in 1976, where he was a top winner of the nation’s premier high school science competition, then known as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (now known as the Regeneron Science Talent Search, see below). Yancopoulos then attended Columbia College, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1980, and was also a two-time winner of the Eisenhoweer Award as the school’s top scholar-athlete as Captain of the Crew team. Yancopoulos received his M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he was chosen to represent his doctoral class as commencement speaker. He launched his career as an academic scientist with Dr. Frederick W. Alt at Columbia, publishing seminal papers in molecular immunology, several of which became citation classics.

In 1989, Yancopoulos left academia to join Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer at Regeneron. Under their leadership, Regeneron has become one of the most admired and innovative companies in biotech history. Its unique ability to repeatedly and consistently translate science into medicine has led to ten FDA-approved or FDA-authorized treatments and numerous product candidates in development, all of which were homegrown in its laboratories, for a range of diseases, including cancer, vision-threatening eye diseases, asthma and infectious diseases.

Yancopoulos takes an unusually hands-on approach for a biotech leader, serving as lead inventor and drug developer. He works closely with key members of his team to invent Regeneron’s medicines and their underlying foundational technologies, such as the VelociGene® “knockout” platform, the VelocImmune® human antibody mouse, and the Veloci-BiTM bispecific antibody creation platform. During the 1990s he was among the ten most highly cited scientists in the world, with landmark publications pertaining to the cloning and biology of numerous growth factors and their receptors (from the Neurotrophins, Angiopoietins, and Ephrins to the CNTF receptor and the Agrin receptor, MUSK), on the elucidation of the mechanism of action of the cytokine class of receptors, and other findings leading to the development of Regeneron’s medicines and technologies. His team continues to pursue cutting-edge research, such as through the Regeneron Genetics Center, a world-leading effort that has sequenced the exomes of more than 1.5 million volunteers and paired this information with de-identified medical records in the quest to identify new and improved treatment options.

Yancopoulos is passionate about supporting the next generation of great young scientists, and giving back to the Columbia community. He leads Regeneron’s numerous STEM education and mentorship programs, including the flagship programs that include the Regeneron Science Talent Search, Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and the DNA Learning Center. Yancopoulos has also committed $10 million to found the Beginner’s Mind Initiative at Columbia, dedicated to teaching students the Buddhist Principle of viewing each person that they meet, as well as every scientific challenge, with an open-mind and no preconceptions or biases.

Yancopoulos was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and into the Biotech Hall of Fame in 2014. He and Dr. Schleifer were selected as Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneurs of the Year” in 2016. In 2019, Yancopoulos was #20 on Forbes’ 2019 list of “World’s 100 Most Innovative Leaders” and was awarded Columbia College's Alexander Hamilton Medal, the highest honor awarded to a member of the Columbia College community for distinguished service and accomplishment in any field of endeavor. Earlier this year, he was named on Fortune’s World’s 25 Greatest Leaders: Heroes Of The Pandemic and received the Business Council of Westchester’s Global Leadership Laureate Award as well as the Galien Foundation’s P. Roy Vagelos Pro Bono Humanum Award along with Dr. Schleifer.

Mikael leads the Worldwide Research, Development and Medical (WRDM) organization at Pfizer, which is responsible for the development of all compounds through proof of concept, and provides pharmaceutical sciences, safety and medical support to the entire R&D pipeline and all marketed medicines and vaccines. WRDM comprises all Pfizer research units, including Oncology, Internal Medicine, Inflammation & Immunology, Vaccines and Rare Disease, as well as the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. The Vaccines R&D team leads scientific efforts from discovery through registration of novel vaccines. Mikael also has worldwide responsibility for Pfizer’s medical, safety and external R&D innovation, as well as science-based teams in pharmaceutical sciences, drug safety R&D, and large and small molecule discovery and development.

Mikael earned his Ph.D. in tumor immunology and M.D. from the University of Lund in Sweden, where he was Adjunct Professor in Tumor Immunology and is a Visiting Professor to advise on science and technology strategies. He serves on the PhRMA Research & Development Leadership Forum as well as on the PhRMA Foundation Board of Directors. He is a member of the board of Agilent Technologies, Research! America, and Vimian.

Mikael is a member of the Board of Overseers for the Scripps Research Institute and a Foreign Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Since 2014, Mikael had co-chaired the Accelerating Medicine Partnership with National Institutes of Health (NIH) previous Director, Francis S. Collins, and now with Acting Director, Lawrence Tabak. Mikael advised the Obama Administration on R&D as well as then Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative to accelerate cancer research.

Mikael is a named inventor on several patents and has published approximately 150 articles in international journals.

As Chief Medical Officer, Paul Burton oversees medical affairs and safety.

Dr. Burton joined Moderna after spending sixteen years with Johnson & Johnson. Since March 2020, he served as Chief Global Medical Affairs Officer of Janssen Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for Janssen’s worldwide medical affairs strategy and execution. Previously, he served as Janssen’s Vice President and Head, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medical Affairs. Dr. Burton also led the Johnson & Johnson collaboration with APPLE for the digital HEARTLINE™ study, and previously led clinical operations for all therapeutic areas across the Americas.

Dr. Burton has an M.D. from the University of London, is board certified in surgery and is a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons with specialist training in cardiothoracic surgery. He holds a Ph.D. in cardiovascular molecular and cellular biology from Imperial College in London and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He has published extensively in peer reviewed journals.

Florian Krammer, PhD, graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria) in 2010. He received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York working on hemagglutinin stalk-based immunity and universal influenza virus vaccines.

In 2014 he became an independent principal investigator and is currently Mount Sinai Professor of Vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Krammer's work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interactions between antibodies and viral surface glycoproteins and on translating this work into novel, broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics. The main target is influenza virus but he is also working on coronaviruses, flaviviruses, hantaviruses, filoviruses and arenaviruses.

He has published more than 300 papers on these topics. Since 2019, Dr. Krammer has served as principal investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC), which develops improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long-lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

Dr. Longmire is mission-driven to accelerate the development of new therapies for disease as the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Medable.

A Stanford-trained physician-scientist, Dr. Longmire identified critical barriers to drug development and founded Medable to pioneer a new category of clinical trial technologies that remove traditional roadblocks to participation and radically accelerate the research process.

Medable is now the industry leader in decentralized and direct-to-patient research, with the ability to serve patients in over 120 languages, 60 countries, and across all therapeutic areas. In addition to having raised approximately $500M in venture capital and driving Medable to an industry-leading position, Dr. Longmire has received recognition as a leading innovator and businesswoman, including being named as one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company.

Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring for patients and in industry on drug development.

He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in January 2016.