Mark Esser | Vice President, Early Vaccines & Immune Therapies R&D
Astrazeneca

Dr. Esser is Vice President of Vaccines and Immune Therapies early R&D at AstraZeneca and is accountable for overall drug discovery, translational research and clinical development of innovative medicines targeting the microbiome and infectious disease. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mark led AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 monoclonal antibody global product development team for Evusheld™ and supported R&D efforts for Vaxzevria™.  Mark also serves on AstraZeneca’s Biopharmaceuticals senior leadership team shaping R&D strategy. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he was the director of the Vaccine and Biologics Center of Excellence at Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) and prior to PPD he was at Merck Vaccines where he held positions of increasing responsibility and was instrumental in the approval of GARDASIL®. He is widely recognized for his contributions to vaccine and immunology research with over 100 peer-reviewed publications. 
Dr. Esser received his B.S. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University, his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from University of Virginia and did his postdoctoral fellowship at the AIDS vaccine program at the National Institutes of Health