P. Roy Vagelos, M.D.

Director Emeritus
Chairman of the Board, Regeneron, Inc.
Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc. (Retired)

Dr. P. Roy Vagelos is Retired Chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc. and Chairman of the Board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He has been a member of the Board of the International Biomedical Research Alliance since 2010, moving to Director Emeritus status in 2013. He received an AB in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania and an MD in 1954 from Columbia University. Following a residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital (1954-56), he joined the National Institutes of Health where from 1956-66 he served as Senior Surgeon and then Section Head of Comparative Biochemistry. In 1966 he became Chairman, Department of Biological Chemistry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and in 1973 founded the University’s Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. In so doing, he established an unprecedented model for the fusion of a Medical School with an undergraduate Department of Biology. In 1975 he joined Merck Research Laboratories and became President of Research until 1985, when he became CEO and later Chairman of the company. He retired in 1994.

Dr. Vagelos is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. For his seminal work on ACP and leadership of Merck, Dr. Vagelos was awarded the American Chemical Society’s Enzyme Chemistry Award in 1967, the National Academy of Science’s Chemistry in Service to Society Award in 1995 and was inducted into the National Business Hall of Fame in 1995. He has received many awards in science and business as well as 14 honorary doctorates. In the past, he was Chairman of the Board of the University of Pennsylvania and served on the boards of TRW, McDonnell Douglas, Prudential Finance, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, The Nature Conservancy and the National Math & Science Initiative. He also served as Co-chairman of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and President and CEO of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Dr. Vagelos’ current philanthropic activities span academia through medicine to industry. He is Chairman of the Columbia University Medical Center Board of Advisors, the Columbia University Precision Medicine Council, and is Co-Chairman of the Columbia University Campaign Executive Committee. He is founder of three undergraduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania: Molecular Life Science (MLS), Life Sciences and Management (LSM) and the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER). He serves on a number of public policy and advisory boards.