Michel De WILDE，PhD

MDW Consultant, LLC

Michel De Wilde has a long career in Vaccine Research and Development. He currently consults for the Vaccine Community. He is member of the Boards of VBI Vaccines Inc and the Infectious Disease Research Institute as well as several Scientific Advisory Boards: Curevac, Univercells, Bioaster, Human Vaccine Project and others.

From 2001 till June 2013, Michel De Wilde was Senior Vice President, Research & Development, at sanofi pasteur, the human vaccines division of Sanofi. In this position, he was responsible for an organization of some 1500 people and a broad portfolio of discovery and development projects.

While at sanofi pasteur, Michel drove the development and licensure by the FDA of a number of products: Adacel (a combination vaccine for adolescents and adults); Menactra (the first tetravalent meningococcal conjugate); the first prototype H5 pandemic vaccine; the pediatric pentavalent vaccine, Pentacel. The first intradermal influenza vaccine, Intanza, was licensed by EMA and the FDA. Also licensed, under accelerated approval, was a new high dose formulation of influenza vaccine for which superior efficacy to conventional vaccines.

Michel was also instrumental in driving the acquisition of and defining the integration model for two biotech companies: Acambis and VaxDesign.

Prior to joining sanofi pasteur in January 2000, De Wilde was at SmithKline Beecham Biologicals (now GSK Vaccines), in Rixensart, Belgium. Michel joined the group in 1978 as a research scientist upon formation of a unit focusing on the application of recombinant DNA technology to vaccine development. He subsequently held positions of increasing responsibility to become Vice President, Research & Development heading a team of some 400 specialists, active in all aspects of pre-clinical vaccine development.  De Wilde has played a key role as a research scientist in the development of several new vaccines, most notably the recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine, as well as GSK’s Malaria vaccine candidate.

Michel received his degree in Chemistry from the Free University of Brussels in 1971, followed by a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1976. He carried out postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (U.S.) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). De Wilde authored over 50 publications during the early part of his career.