Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a leading not-for-profit partnership dedicated to combating malaria, has today announced the appointment of Martin Fitchet MD as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Martin brings over 25 years of experience across Pharmaceuticals, MedTech and Global Public Health and joins from Johnson & Johnson where he was most recently the Global Head of Global Public Health.
Before that, Martin held multiple significant leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, spearheading the development of and global access to novel pharmaceuticals for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, HIV, tuberculosis, Ebola and COVID-19.
The new CEO joins as MMV celebrates its 25th anniversary and succeeds David Reddy, who was at the helm of the organisation for 13 years.
During this period, MMV brought forward 15 new medicines estimated to have saved the lives of 15.4 million people. Yet malaria remains an urgent and pressing global health issue that takes more than 600,000 lives a year. We must overcome the challenges posed by drug resistance, climate change and fragile health systems that limit access to medicines by the most vulnerable, notably children and pregnant women.
In his new role, Martin will oversee the development and delivery of new antimalarial medicines to help achieve a malaria-free future. This vision of the future is the linchpin of MMV’s new 2024-2030 strategy that will be launched at the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Society Conference taking place in Rwanda from 21–27 April.
The strategy lays out four pillars and cross-cutting priorities that will determine the organisation’s activity in the years ahead.