Pfizer Inc. has appointed Kathrin U Jansen as senior vice president, vaccine research & development with effect from June 1, 2015. Dr Jansen will be responsible for leading all Pfizer vaccine research and development programmes. She will report directly to Mikael Dolsten, president of worldwide research and development at Pfizer, and will be based in Pfizer’s Pearl River, New York research site.

“With over two decades of experience as a vaccine researcher, Kathrin is a world-class scientist with a remarkable track-record of delivering first-in-class vaccines in areas with serious unmet patient need such as human papillomavirus infection and Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B,” said Dr. Dolsten. “She has also played a pivotal role in advancing Pfizer’s Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile vaccine candidate programmes, the licensure of Prevnar 13 in both infant and adult indications, and the development of the diagnostic assays that enabled the CAPiTAi. I am confident that she will continue to lead our vaccine research organization with a sharp focus on delivering potential vaccine breakthroughs for infectious diseases.”

Dr Jansen was previously chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s vaccine research and early development research unit. Dr Jansen’s Pfizer career started when she joined Wyeth, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, in 2006, where she was responsible for leading vaccine research with a focus on infectious disease targets, early development and clinical testing. Earlier in her career, Dr Jansen served as VaxGen's chief scientific officer and senior vice president for research and development and also directed a number of vaccine research efforts at Merck Research Laboratories, including the company’s novel bacterial vaccine programmes. Her efforts led to the licensure of the world's first cervical cancer vaccine for the prevention of human papillomavirus infection (HPV).

“There is a remarkable scientific opportunity in vaccine research ahead of us and Pfizer’s vaccine research and development team is fully focused on addressing major neonatal, infant, adolescent and adult infections and pioneering therapeutic immunotherapy across diseases including cancer,” said Dr Jansen. “We are building on the rich foundation of our scientific heritage with Prevnar and other vaccines to design and develop vaccine candidates that are unique - and most importantly - with the potential to significantly improve patients’ lives.”

Dr Jansen received her doctoral degree in microbiology, biochemistry and genetics from Phillips Universität, Marburg, Germany. Following completion of her formal training and postdoctoral work at the Institute for Mikrobiologie in Marburg, Dr Jansen continued her postdoctoral training with Professor G.P. Hess at Cornell University. She then joined the Glaxo Institute for Molecular Biology in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 2010, Dr. Jansen has been adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine.

Dr Jansen will succeed Dr. Emilio Emini, who has accepted a position at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the head of their HIV program.