Zerhouni, Elias A.

Elias Zerhouni (in Arabic إلياس زرهوني) (born April 12, 1951) is an Algerian-born American scientist, radiologist, biomedical engineer, entrepreneur, and pharmaceutical industry executive, known for having been the 15th Director of the National Institutes of Health. He spent much of his career on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, serving as an executive vice dean from 1996 to 2002. He was the 15th director of the National Institutes of Health, in post from May 2, 2002, to October 31, 2008, under the George W. Bush administration. In 2009, under the Obama administration, he served as one of the country's first presidential science envoys to foster scientific and technologic collaboration with other nations. He was a senior fellow for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2009 to 2010. From January 2011 until his retirement on June 30th, 2018, he was the President for Global Research and Development at the pharmaceutical company Sanofi. In October 2020, Zerhouni co-founded ModeX Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company focused on developing multi-specific immune therapies for cancer and infectious diseases. In 2022, ModeX was acquired by OPKO Health, and Zerhouni was appointed President and Vice Chairman of the latter. In 2023, ModeX signed a deal with Merck to develop an Epstein-Barr virus vaccine.