Michael Watson

Michael Watson is the current Commercial Advisor at baseimmune. Prior to this, they were Consultant - SARS-CoV-2 at Moderna from January 2020 to December 2020. There, they worked on mRNA-1273, COVID-19 vaccine development. From March 2016 to October 2019, they were the President of Valera/ID Therapeutic Area & SVP Partnerships at MODERNA/VALERA. There, they led the infectious diseases strategy & team (vaccines and antibodies), nested within Moderna. Michael initiated novel vaccine & antibody approaches to viral (including HIV) and bacterial targets and generated $135M in Funding from BARDA, BMGF, IAVI (HIV), NIAID/VRC and IAVI for vaccines and antibody projects against: Zika, HIV, Sepsis, Ebola. Marburg, Lassa, Nipah, & MERS-CoV. Michael also led partnership with Merck vaccines, BMGF, BARDA, NIAID/VRC, CEPI & UTMB. Extensive engagement with Brazil, Hong Kong, & WHO on novel mRNA-enabled approaches to Flu and epidemics. Prior to that, they were the Global Head of Policy at Sanofi from September 2009 to March 2016. Michael is also Board Member & Chair of Remuneration Committee at FIND.

Michael Watson attended Birmingham University and then University of Birmingham for their MBChB in Medicine.