Raman Rao, MD, MBA

As Chief Executive Officer of Hilleman Laboratories, a joint venture between Merck & Co and Wellcome Trust, Dr. Raman Rao leads the charge for providing effective, affordable, and impactful solutions for infectious diseases and global public health, especially for low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Rao has more than two decades of experience in research and development, manufacturing, and commercialization of vaccines for infectious diseases in global pharma and biotech companies. He has served as the vice president of Global Product Operations at Takeda Pharmaceutical, Singapore, where he enhanced the global product portfolio while successfully leading an international team across Japan, Singapore, and the United States. The team worked in the areas of dengue, norovirus, Zika virus, polio, and other vaccines.

Dr. Rao started his career in 2001 with Shantha Biotechnics Limited, part of Sanofi Aventis Group in India, in clinical research and scientific affairs and worked in different roles in research and development at Sanofi. He holds an MD in clinical microbiology from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in India.

Dr. Rao currently serves as the co-chair of the World Health Organization’s Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee, an independent committee of experts providing external advice to the World Health Organization on priority infectious disease pathogens, associated vaccine and monoclonal antibody product development approaches, and related manufacturing and delivery technologies. He is also a member of the International Vaccine Institute Scientific Advisory Group; serves on the Technical Advisory Committee at MinervaX, a Danish clinical-stage biotech company developing a state-of-the-art prophylactic vaccine against group B streptococcus; and is on the board of Gland Celsus Bio Chemical (Shantha) Vaccines, India.

Appointed to the board: June 2024