Pfizer vaccine head Kathrin Jansen is stepping down from the pharma giant after spearheading the development of the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty.
Kathrin Jansen/Courtesy of John Meore/The Journal News
Pfizer vaccine head Kathrin Jansen is stepping down from the pharma giant after spearheading the development of the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty co-developed with Germany’s BioNTech. She will retire from the company later this year.
Jansen’s departure was first announced on LinkedIn by Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer and president of worldwide research, development and medical at Pfizer. His announcement touted Jansen’s accomplishments as head of Pfizer’s vaccine research and development organization.
“Through her commitment to excellence and tenacity, and the vaccines that she has helped develop over her illustrious career, Kathrin has touched the lives of billions of people across all ages,” Dolsten wrote. “Over the last two years, Kathrin’s legendary resolve, stellar scientific intuition, and vaccine development expertise ushered in the first glimmer of hope for humanity in the middle of the pandemic. On top of what was already a distinguished career, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is an accomplishment achieved under Kathrin’s leadership, and one that helped to change the course of history.”
Pfizer itself has not made a formal announcement regarding Jansen’s decision. Dolsten said the company is conducting a search for Jansen’s successor.
Jansen has overseen Pfizer’s vaccines program since 2009. Under her eye, the company not only developed Comirnaty, which was the first of the mRNA vaccines to receive Emergency Use Authorization in the United States. Before that, she also oversaw the successful development of Prevnar13, Pfizer’s pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, as well as the licensure of Trumenba, the first vaccine licensed in the U.S. to prevent invasive disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B. The wide use of these medications illustrates Dolsten’s point that Jansen, although not widely known to the public, has touched the lives of billions of people across the globe.
Jansen began her career at Merck, where she served as executive director and department head of microbial vaccine research. At Merck, she played a role in the development of Gardasil, the company’s blockbuster human papillomavirus vaccine. She spent 12 years in that role before taking over the position of chief scientific officer of VaxGen, a Bay Area-based company focused on the development of a vaccine for AIDS.
After spending two years with VaxGen, Jansen took on the position of senior vice president of vaccine research and early development at Wyeth. She spent three years in that role before assuming her current duties with Pfizer, according to her LinkedIn profile.
As head of vaccine research and development, Jansen has worked on a number of different immunizations. Beyond the previously mentioned vaccines, the portfolio she manages at Pfizer includes preventative medications for streptococcus pneumoniae, clostridioides difficile, respiratory syncytial virus, Group B streptococcus and lyme disease. Pfizer’s RSV vaccine is currently in late-stage studies. The candidate RSVpreF is being developed to protect against the virus in infants through maternal immunization, as well as to prevent RSV in adults over the age of 60.
“Kathrin will be deeply missed at Pfizer. I will miss her inquisitive mind and how she pushed us to think differently about many aspects of vaccine R&D,” Dolsten said. “I’m grateful for the team and pipeline she has built at Pfizer and know that her contributions will be felt for decades to come. Kathrin’s bold leadership has no doubt already inspired a generation of future vaccine hunters.”
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