1 July 2010 - Rockville, Maryland, USA - The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation today announced that James E. Connolly has been named President and Chief Executive Officer. He joins Aeras after a career in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Wyeth Vaccines. He will take over as Aeras President and CEO on August 9, 2010.
At Aeras Connolly will lead a team of over 140 employees working to discover, develop and deliver safer, more effective and affordable new vaccines to prevent and ultimately eliminate tuberculosis. Four vaccine candidates in Aeras' portfolio are currently in clinical trials in Africa, Europe and the United States, including two candidates in Phase IIb trials. Aeras receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the governments of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the Research Council of Norway, the State of Maryland, and other donors.
Connolly joins Aeras after more than two decades of pharmaceutical industry experience. As Executive Vice President and General Manager of Wyeth Vaccines from 2004 to 2009, he played a leading role in expanding access to the breakthrough pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar to more than 100 countries and 35 national immunization programs, including numerous emerging and developing countries, where pneumococcal disease is a major cause of child mortality. He worked in cooperation with the GAVI Alliance and key stakeholders on the development and launch of the pilot Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines. He was closely involved in the launch of Prevnar in Rwanda and The Gambia, the first developing countries to establish national immunization campaigns against pneumococcal disease. He also served on an advisory committee for the GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership dedicated to improving world health by ensuring access to immunization in developing nations while supporting development of new vaccines.
The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation is a non-profit research organization developing new tuberculosis vaccines and ensuring that they are distributed to all who need them around the world. Aeras is funded primarily by private foundations and government aid agencies and based in Rockville, Maryland.