Vishal Vaidya has led multidisciplinary teams in academe and industry with a goal of changing patients’ lives by discovering disease modulating targets and disease monitoring biomarkers.
At Pfizer since 2016, Vishal has held leadership roles with increasing responsibilities in Drug Safety R & D and Early Clinical Development with remit of applying biomarker science to achieve confidence in translational safety, clinical proof of mechanism and patient stratification for candidates across all therapeutic areas. Currently he is the Vice President, Chief Toxicology Scientist serving as a senior advisor to develop and implement translational safety and risk management strategies for Pfizer’s portfolio. Vishal leads disruptive innovation by leading internal and external collaborative teams with a goal of modernizing safety and translational sciences. Prior to this, Vishal was an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School where his team invented biomarkers and targets for kidney disease, co-founded a biotechnology company (Mediar Therapeutics). Vishal has supervised over 30 trainees, delivered 80 talks, authored over 100 publications, and edited a book “Biomarkers in Medicine, Drug Discovery and Environmental Health”. Vishal’s work has been recognized by NIH/NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Innovation in Regulatory Science Award, Society of Toxicology’s (SOT) Leading Edge in Basic Science Award and the SOT Achievement Award.
Vishal obtained his graduate and postdoctoral training from University of Louisiana, Monroe and Harvard Medical School, Boston respectively. Apart from deep expertise in human disease biology and translational medicine, Vishal brings proven skills in leadership, entrepreneurship, communication, and team building.