Medicines for Malaria Venture appoints new CEO – Africa Science News

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a leading not-for-profit partnership committed to fighting malaria, today announced the appointment of Martin Fitchet MD as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Martin brings more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical, MedTech and Global Public Health and joins from Johnson & Johnson, where he was most recently Global Head of Global Public Health.

Previously, Martin held multiple key leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, where he led the development of and global access to new medicines for cardiovascular diseases, HIV, tuberculosis, Ebola and COVID-19.

The new CEO joins as MMV celebrates its 25th anniversary^e anniversary and succeeds David Reddy, who was at the helm of the organization for 13 years.

During this period, MMV has introduced 15 new medicines that are estimated to have saved the lives of 15.4 million people. Yet malaria remains a pressing and urgent global health problem that claims more than 600,000 lives every year. We must overcome the challenges posed by drug resistance, climate change and fragile healthcare systems that limit access to medicines for the most vulnerable, especially children and pregnant women.

In his new role, Martin will oversee the development and delivery of new antimalarial drugs to help achieve a malaria-free future. This vision of the future is the core of MMV’s new strategy 2024-2030, which will be launched at the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Society Conference taking place in Rwanda on March 21.^–April 27th.

The strategy includes four pillars and cross-cutting priorities that will determine the organization’s activities in the coming years.