Mark Feinberg M.D., Ph.D., views healthcare from a global perspective.  As the president and CEO of IAVI (formerly the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative), he leads a worldwide team to develop vaccines and other biomedical innovations to combat infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low-income countries.  The organization develops vaccines and treatments for HIV, tuberculosis, and emerging diseases including COVID-19.

“One of the key themes of the IAVI program is how to foster positive collaborations between different organizations to overcome vaccine challenges that are difficult for any one entity to solve by itself,” he explained. “That is fundamentally at the heart of what I do.” As a nonprofit scientific research organization, IAVI helps mobilize funding and expertise to address diseases that are often overlooked by commercial markets.

 This encompassing vision of medicine and mission stems from Feinberg’s experience both as a clinician treating people with AIDS and a researcher studying HIV. Through this work, he realized that healthcare had to think beyond borders in order to be both equitable and effective. “Having been very involved in the response to AIDS lets you fully appreciate the interconnectedness of the world,” he said.

This insight led him to join the pharmaceutical giant Merck in 2004, where, as chief public health and science officer, he worked to develop vaccines against rotavirus, human papillomavirus, and other infectious diseases, before coming to the Advanced Leadership Initiative as a Fellow in 2012 and Senior Fellow in 2013.

Citing engagement with Harvard faculty as well as the other ALI fellows “similarly interested in trying to use their professional skills and abilities to make the world a better place,” he left refreshed and renewed. “ALI helped me strengthen those abilities and reflect on ways that I could go after other important challenges.”

The timing could not have been more fortuitous. Returning to Merck full-time, he was able to spearhead a public-private effort to expedite an Ebola vaccine, during the 2014–16 outbreak in West Africa. Building upon his commitment to developing more effective partnership models to address unmet health needs, Feinberg played a key role in establishing CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Feinberg worked with other scientists and global health leaders to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to prepare for the next and future epidemics. Since its founding, CEPI has supported technologies that enabled the field to develop COVID-19 vaccines in record time, has funded many COVID-19 vaccine candidates directly, and championed the importance of equitable and affordable global access to COVID-19 vaccines.

“After that experience, I recognized that responses to major global health threats would require similarly effective multisector collaborations,” he said. “You’re not going to develop products that solve problems unless you understand the needs and the circumstances of the communities who are affected.”

Since joining IAVI in 2015, he has focused on similar efforts to battle diseases around the world, developing public health solutions that are affordable and globally accessible. He has forged IAVI partnerships across the public and private sectors to advance biomedical prevention research for HIV, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). More broadly, a program in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported capacity strengthening in Africa and India to help advance research networks in those areas most affected by infectious diseases.

Feinberg credits the Advanced Leadership Initiative with helping him hone his multidisciplinary and wide-reaching approach.  “The time at ALI helped me strengthen those abilities and reflect on ways that I could go after other important challenges,” he said. “Equitable global access and access to medicines is a human right.”