Chats with our Scientific Advisory Board: Rupert Vessey, PhD with Christopher Ung on Drug Development

Drug development expert Rupert Vessey sat down with our Chief Scientific business officer Christopher Ung to discuss how pharma companies can choose where to invest when we consider multiple modalities for the same target. Rupert Vessey is a member of our scientific advisory board, a group who works closely with our leadership and scientists to ensure we are at the forefront of therapeutic development, generating reliable, regulatory-ready data that supports complex clinical development.

CellCarta partners with translational medicine, biomarker, and clinical development teams to generate reliable, regulatory-ready data for complex clinical programs. With fully owned and harmonized laboratory operations across North America, Europe, Australia, and China, CellCarta delivers integrated capabilities spanning immunology, histopathology, proteomics, and genomics, including for CAR and immunotherapy programs, supported by comprehensive sample management and logistics solutions.

About Rupert Vessey

Rupert served as Executive Vice President and President, Research and Early Development for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). He joined BMS with its acquisition of Celgene in 2019. In this role, he led Research and Early Development, overseeing the advancement of promising programs, technologies and assets across all therapeutic areas, from discovery through proof-of-concept. He also worked closely with Business Development to identify external sources of innovation. In addition, he served as the executive sponsor of the Organization for Latino Achievement (OLA) People and Business Resource Group and the Bristol Myers Squibb STEM Council.

Rupert joined BMS from Celgene, where he served as president of the company’s Research and Early Development organization. Prior to joining Celgene in 2015, Rupert spent ten years at Merck, where he was responsible for numerous drug development programs and held leadership roles in the company’s Early Development, Discovery Sciences, Drug Discovery and Informatics groups, as well as its respiratory and immunology franchise. Prior to his time at Merck, he spent five years at GlaxoSmithKline involved in drug discovery, experimental medicine and early clinical development of therapeutics for respiratory and immune diseases.

Rupert graduated from Oxford University in the United Kingdom with degrees in physiological sciences (MA), clinical medicine (BM, BCh) and a doctor of philosophy (DPhil) in molecular immunology. He is an elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.