Dr Kenny Simmen

Kenny Simmen is currently the Vice President, Scientific Innovation, Janssen Infectious Diseases & Vaccines. He leads the identification of novel drug / vaccine opportunities through the J&J Innovation Centers and has initiated over 25 collaborations. He has been in J&J since 1997, working in California, Belgium and the UK. From 2002-2015 in Tibotec (with Dr Paul Stoffels) then Janssen he built and then led a global Research and Early Development team which successfully identified and advanced eight compounds up to the clinical “proof-of-concept”, including Simeprevir, an FDA approved protease inhibitor for hepatitis C (Olysio®) developed together with Medivir. He has worked on discovery and development programs in HIV, HBV, dengue, influenza, RSV, TB and other respiratory infections.
Kenny is also the Janssen representative on the EFPIA Research & Innovation Strategy Group and IMI Strategic Governing Group, Infection Control. In EFPIA he contributes to the scientific research agenda in the EU and the J&J participation in many public-private consortia.
Dr. Simmen holds an B.Sc.(Hons) degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh, and obtained his Ph.D. at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg. Following postdoctoral research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Dr. Simmen worked in the Virology Department at Roche UK.