Background


Founder and CEO, Dr. Donald Gerson

Dr. Gerson received his Ph.D. from McGill University, was professor of biophysics and biochemical engineering at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He was a Member of the Basel Institute for Immunology at Hoffmann La Roche in Switzerland, where he worked for Prof. Niels Jerne, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1984.

Dr. Gerson’s career includes:

  • President and COO of Celltrion, Inc., a manufacturer cGMP biosimilars with 50,000 liters of capacity located in Incheon, Korea, the first biologicals facility in Asia to be licensed by the US FDA, and supplier of Orencia.
  • Managing Director for manufacturing at Wyeth-Lederle Vaccines and Pediatrics in the USA, supplying about 50% of the US vaccine requirement and a significant amount to international markets.
  • VP Manufacturing and Development at Acambis, Inc., developing a new vaccine for Smallpox and supplying 300 million doses of the new vaccine after 9/11.
  • He has produced many vaccines including: DTP, BCG, the world’s first Hib Conjugate, Adult Pneumococcal vaccine, the world’s first children’s pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Prevnar), the world’s first meningococcal conjugate vaccine, Measles, both oral and injected polio vaccines, Rabies, Typhoid, Cholera, and a number of pre-clinical and clinical vaccines for HIV and other diseases. He has designed and constructed many biotech facilities around the world.
  • Founder and first Head of the Biotechnology Department at the Alberta Research Council, a 15,000 L biotechnology pilot and CMO facility in Edmonton.
  • VP vaccine manufacturing operations of Connaught Laboratories in Canada, supplying most of the Canadian vaccine requirement and a significant fraction of UNICEF’s vaccine requirements
  • VP R&D Apotex Fermentation Inc., Winnipeg.
  • Founder and Managing Director, Guangdong Blue Treasure Pharmaceuticals, Guangdong, China.
  • He has over 90 publications and 5 patents in various areas of biotechnology, including biophysics, cell physiology, immunology, biochemical engineering, vaccine development, and biologicals manufacturing