WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- BIO Ventures for Global Health announced today that Melinda Moree, PhD, has been named Chief Executive Officer of the global health non-profit. Moree has served as interim CEO of BIO Ventures for Global Health since July 2009 and has been a member of the board of directors since the organization’s inception in 2004. Before joining BIO Ventures for Global Health as interim CEO, she served as Executive Director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (PATH) and was the Principal Investigator on the Global Health Frontiers project conducted with the Center for Global Development which examined using the commercial drivers of emerging economy markets to increase access to medicines among the poor for chronic and infectious diseases.
“It has been a privilege to work closely with Melinda as a fellow board member and as interim CEO,” says Carl B. Feldbaum, Esq., chair of the BIO Ventures for Global Health board. “Her technical expertise, experience in the global health community, and personal diplomacy are just what BIO Ventures for Global Health needs to succeed. Melinda’s driving dedication for our mission is inspirational -- we are beyond pleased to have her as CEO.”
Until early 2007, Moree was the Director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI). MVI is a public-private partnership with a mission to accelerate the development of malaria vaccines and to ensure that they are available and accessible to people in developing countries. While at MVI, Moree was instrumental in setting the overall vision for the program and in ensuring an organizational design and a sense of urgency that enabled rapid execution and solid relations with industry. Under her leadership the first-ever proof of concept that a vaccine could prevent malaria in African children was achieved.
“I love the non-profit sector where we are able to set ambitious goals based solely on the social welfare of the neediest in our society,” says Moree. “But it is not non-profits that will make the new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to solve the world’s greatest unmet medical needs -- it is companies. Finding the common ground between the goals of global health and the pragmatic needs of companies is a complex puzzle that I look forward to solving with our expanding team.”
The unique nature of BIO Ventures for Global Health requires depth of knowledge in both global health and the biopharmaceutical industry. BIO Ventures for Global Health will soon make an executive hire from the biopharmaceutical industry that ensures the continuing balance of global health and biopharmaceutical experience at the most senior levels in the organization. “BIO Ventures for Global Health occupies a unique space in the nonprofit world,” says Feldbaum. “Through her five-year service on our board, Melinda has become fully aware and equipped to optimally staff BIO Ventures for Global Health.”
“Awareness of global health issues is at an historic high. Now BIO Ventures for Global Health must implement its programs quickly and effectively in order to make a real difference to people in poor countries who are suffering from neglected diseases,” says Moree. “There is no shortage of goodwill among people in biopharmaceutical companies to work on products for neglected diseases. BIO Ventures for Global Health is committed to finding commercially viable strategies that channel that commitment.”
About BIO Ventures for Global Health
BIO Ventures for Global Health is a non-profit organization whose mission is to save lives by accelerating the development of novel biotechnology-based drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to address the unmet medical needs of the developing world. The organization spurs biotech industry involvement in global health product development by increasing biotech and global health partnerships, designing and advocating for compelling market-based incentives, and synthesizing and disseminating critical information and quantitative analysis. For more information, visit www.bvgh.org.
