David Robinson

David Robinson oversees the foundation’s work with partners to harness advances in chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) to develop new vaccines against diseases including polio.

Before joining the foundation in 2017, David spent 25 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, mostly at Merck (MSD), where he held vice president positions in the Bioprocess Research and Development, Biologics Pipeline and Project Leadership, and CMC Regulatory Biologics and Vaccines groups. He supported the development of the regulatory strategy that led to the approval of multiple products, including Gardasil 9, an anti-C. difficile toxin B antibody; a follow-on biologic to Lantus, a novel wet-dry autoinjector; and two allergy treatment tablets. David also chaired the CMC development team that achieved approval of RotaTeq, a rotavirus vaccine, and led the CMC regulatory group that gained approval of the first anti-PD-1 immunooncology monoclonal antibody in the United States, Keytruda. Both RotaTeq and Keytruda won Prix Galien Awards for best biotechnology products.

David received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from MIT. He did postdoctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States.