Jeff Marc Leiden

Dr. Jeffrey Leiden is the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Leiden has more than 20 years of scientific, commercial, and financial experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Leiden began his career, however, in academia as a practicing cardiologist and molecular biologist. Over the course of his career, Leiden cloned and characterized several novel transcription factors required for both T-cell and cardiovascular development and function including GATA3, GATA4, Ets 1, and LKLF. He further demonstrated that genetically modified skeletal myocytes can be used to deliver physiological levels of therapeutic proteins to the circulation. In a parallel line of research, he developed cytostatic gene therapy approaches for vascular proliferative disorders. In one of his first industry appointments, as President and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at Abbott Laboratories, Leiden helped develop and launch multiple breakthrough medicines, including Humira for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases and Kaletra for HIV infection, among others. In addition to his position at Vertex, Leiden is currently a director of Quest Diagnostics and the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Boston Children’s Hospital. In addition to his American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership, Leiden has been recognized as a member of the National Academy of Medicine. His numerous publications appear in Genes & Development, Molecular Cell, Nature, and Science.