New Role Created At GlaxoSmithKline's Vaccines Unit

October 23, 2014

By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Biotech behemoth GlaxoSmithKline has appointed an “Ebola czar” as it attempts to ramp up development of a potential vaccine for the deadly virus, announcing this week it has appointed well-known industry figure Moncef Slaoui as its new chairman of vaccines.

GSK announced a joint venture with Johnson & Johnson this week to combine forces to produce Ebola vaccines and therapies by the end of 2015. J&J has said it will have as many as one million doses of any potential vaccine next year.

No vaccine or cure for Ebola has been found yet, but industry players large and small have been rushing to find a way to combat the spread of the virus.

Slaoui has a doctorate in molecular biology and immunology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. He completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and at Tufts University School of Medicine.

He then worked in academia as professor of immunology at the University of Mons in Belgium before transitioning into the biopharma sector. He is a prolific writer, with more than 100 scientific papers to his credit, and is fluent in English, French and Arabic.