NVAC Representative Member | Term: 9/9/2015 – 9/9/2019
Co-Chair: Mid-Course Review Working Group
Dr. Cooke is the Chief Executive Officer of NovaDigm Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing vaccines against fungal and bacterial pathogens. He was previously Chief Operating Officer of AVANT Immunotherapeutics, which developed enteric vaccines against cholera, typhoid fever and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. Prior to that he was CEO at Mojave Therapeutics, which developed therapeutic vaccines against chronic viral infections and cancer. Dr. Cooke entered the vaccine industry in 1991 when he joined the newly-created Merck Vaccines business unit and had domestic and international commercial responsibilities over the next nine years. He was a founding member of Sanofi Pasteur-MSD, a European joint venture for vaccine development and commercialization, and led the formation of Merck’s vaccine business in Central and Eastern Europe.
Dr. Cooke has significant experience in domestic and global vaccine policy, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Vaccine Policy Advisory Committee of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and as a member of BIO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Working Group. He was the vaccine industry representative to the Working Group of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) during its formation in 2000.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University, and a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
