Valneva SE announced that Dr Kathrin U Jansen, Ph.D., a German national with over 30 years of vaccine R&D experience, was appointed to Valneva’s Supervisory Board for a three-year term. From 2015 to 2022, she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Vaccine Research and Development (VRD) at Pfizer Inc, and was a member of Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development and Medical leadership team. She led a fully integrated, global vaccines research and development organization, with responsibilities ranging from discovery to clinical development, registration, and post-marketing commitments of all of Pfizer’s vaccines, including partnered ones.

From 2006 to 2015, Dr. Jansen served as Senior Vice President at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and then Pfizer and was responsible for vaccine discovery, early development, and clinical testing operations. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Jansen spent 12 years at Merck Research Laboratories supporting several vaccine efforts and leading the R&D activities of Gardasil®, the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine. Dr. Jansen received her PhD in microbiology, biochemistry & genetics from Phillips Universitaet, Marburg, Germany, in 1984 followed by postdoctoral training at Cornell University.

Dr. Jansen was appointed an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2010 and has authored and co-authored over 200 publications. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and recipient of the Albert B Sabin Gold Medal.