Rajeev Venkayya is President of Takeda’s Global Vaccine Business Unit, a vertically-integrated business with a pipeline that includes vaccine candidates for norovirus and dengue. He also oversees Takeda’s contract with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a vaccine to support the Zika response in the U.S. and affected regions around the world. He is an independent member of the board of CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prior to Takeda, Dr. Venkayya served as Director of Vaccine Delivery in the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was responsible for the Foundation’s efforts in polio eradication and new vaccine introduction, and a grant portfolio of $500 million per year. While at the Foundation, he served on the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
Dr. Venkayya was previously the Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense at the White House. In this capacity, he oversaw U. S. preparedness for bioterrorism and biological threats, and was responsible for the development and implementation of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. He first came to Washington though the non-partisan White House Fellowship program in 2002.
Trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Dr. Venkayya served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He also served as co-director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and Director of the High-Risk Asthma Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.
Dr. Venkayya was a resident and Chief Medical Resident in internal medicine at the University of Michigan in the U. S. He completed his undergraduate and medical school education in the B.S./M.D. program at the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine in the U.S., where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honorary medical society.
