Dr. Leiden is a physician and scientist who has dedicated his career to improving the lives of people with serious diseases. He currently serves as our Executive Chairman and was our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2012 through March 2020. He has been a member of our board of directors since July 2009, chairman of the board of directors since May 2012, and served as lead independent director from October 2010 through December 2011. Under his leadership, Vertex delivered the first and only medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis for patients with certain forms of the disease including KALYDECO^®, ORKAMBI^® and TRIKAFTA^®.

As CEO, Dr. Leiden also built a robust pipeline of drug candidates in specialty markets, including pain, sickle cell disease and type 1 diabetes, with a particular focus on therapies that may cure or modify the course of disease. In 2015, he established a collaboration with CRISPR Therapeutics that led to the discovery and development of CASGEVY™, the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy approved for certain eligible people with sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia. In 2019, he led the Vertex acquisition of Semma Therapeutics to develop a clinical program to investigate what may be the first potentially curative stem cell-based therapy for type 1 diabetes.

During his tenure as CEO Dr. Leiden established a signature program at Vertex to enhance STEAM education among students in Vertex’s local communities, including an on-site Learning Lab, mentorship programs, internships and college scholarships. In 2017, Vertex announced a sustained corporate giving commitment of $500 million over the next 10 years, of which $50 million is focused on STEAM education.

Prior to joining Vertex, Dr. Leiden was a managing director at Clarus Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm, from 2006 through January 2012. Dr. Leiden was President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Abbott Laboratories, Pharmaceuticals Products Group, and a member of the board of directors of Abbott Laboratories from 2000 to 2006. At Abbott he led the development and commercialization of HUMIRA^® (adalimumab) and KALETRA® (lopinavir/ritonavir). From 1987 to 2000, Dr. Leiden held several academic and hospital appointments, including the Rawson Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Chicago, the Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. During his academic career, he was also involved in starting several biotechnology companies including Vical and Cardiogene. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Dr. Leiden serves as lead independent director of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, as chairman of Odyssey Therapeutics, a privately held company developing novel medicines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, and chairman of Casana, a privately held home health monitoring company. He is also a member of the MIT CEO Advisory Board and a director of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP). He is a member of the Massachusetts’ Governor’s Digital Healthcare Council, the Governor’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, and the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.

Dr. Leiden previously held a number of industry board positions and was the former vice chairman of Shire plc and a director of PathAI, Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Quest Diagnostics, TAP Pharmaceuticals and Tmunity Therapeutics. He served as chairman of the MACP from January 2020 to December 2022 and was a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. Dr. Leiden received his M.D., Ph.D. and B.A. degrees from the University of Chicago.