Rupert Vessey, MA, BM BCh, FRCP, DPhil

Chief Scientist and Executive Partner
Flagship Pioneering

Rupert Vessey graduated from Oxford University with degrees in Physiological Sciences (MA, First Class Honors) and Clinical Medicine (BM, BCh, proxime accessit). He subsequently undertook clinical training at several notable institutions in the UK including the Hammersmith Hospital at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. During this time he became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London UK. Rupert undertook basic research training in the laboratory of Professor Sir Stephen Bloom at the Hammersmith Hospital and under the direction of Professor Sir John Bell at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Oxford where he completed a DPhil in Molecular Immunology. During his research period he was a Junior Research Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and a training fellow of the UK Medical Research Council. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London and in 2019 he was appointed visiting Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Oxford.

Rupert joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1997 and has worked in the UK and USA. At GlaxoSmithKline he worked primarily in drug discovery, experimental medicine and early clinical development gaining experience in a wide range of respiratory and immunology projects including monoclonal antibodies, DNA vaccines, anti-inflammatory drugs and inhaled medicines for asthma and COPD. During 10 years at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) Rupert benefitted from diverse experiences including a period working on the clinical development of varicella vaccines where he contributed to both the refrigerator stable formulation of VARIVAX and the shingles vaccine, ZOSTAVAX. Since 2006 Rupert held multiple roles in senior management including Vice President Molecular Profiling and Research Informatics and Site Head for Rosetta Inpharmatics, Seattle, Vice President Drug Discovery and Site Head for MRL Boston and Vice President Drug Discovery and Site Head for MRL Kenilworth. In these latter roles Rupert was responsible for a wide range of activities including Pharmacogenomics, Molecular Profiling, Informatics and drug discovery in the Respiratory, Inflammation, Oncology, Infectious Disease and Neuroscience therapeutic areas. In 2011 Rupert was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President and Head of the MRL Respiratory and Immunology Franchise. In this role he was responsible for the end to end discovery and development portfolio for Respiratory and Immunologic diseases and partnership with Merck’s Global Human Health Franchise. Under his leadership numerous projects were advanced through the discovery and development pipeline and approvals were achieved for RAGWITEK and GRASTEK as well as multiple supplementary indications for REMICADE and SIMPONI. From 2013 Rupert was Senior Vice President and Head of Early Development and Discovery Sciences. In this role he was responsible for managing an organization of 1500 scientists and for devising a new operating model that integrated early clinical development with discovery and genetics to facilitate the translation of new discoveries to the clinic. Commencing in February 2015 Rupert joined Celgene as Senior Vice President of Translational Development and Head of the Immunology and Inflammation Thematic Center of Excellence and in January 2016 assumed the role of Executive Vice President and President of Global Research and Early Development. In this position Rupert was responsible for oversight of all of Celgene’s internal and external discovery research, preclinical development and early clinical development. The organization also provided translational science support to the Hematology, Oncology and Immunology Franchises. Under his oversight numerous compounds were advanced in the Celgene pipeline across a range of modalities including small molecules, biologics and cellular therapeutics. At the close of the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in November 2019 Rupert assumed the role of Executive Vice President and President of Global Research and Early Development at BMS. Since joining BMS further progress has been made on a range of novel programs including approvals in cell therapies BREYANZI and ABECMA as well as REBLOZYL, ZEPOSIA, SOTYKTU and CAMZYOS. Numerous business development transactions have also been completed to build a novel pipeline of neuroscience assets as well as the acquisition of Myokardia to enhance CV research. BMS has also become a leader in the field of targeted protein degradation with numerous programs in clinical development and many others in all phases of discovery. In July of 2023 Rupert retired from BMS. He joined Flagship Pioneering as Chief Scientist and Executive Partner in 2023.