Jens Zehetner
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Franchise Director, Merck Sharp & Dohme
“At MSD, our mission is to discover and develop new therapies and vaccines that help all patients, at all ages, live longer, healthier lives – United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3. It's an extremely complex and expensive task. As there are still many unmet medical needs today, it is critical to continue to incentivise pharmaceutical R&D to continue to address the health needs of patients.”
Jens Zehetner was born in Austria and studied technical chemistry at the Technical University of Vienna with a specialisation in biotechnology, biochemistry and food sciences. Later, he joined the PhD program at the Competence Center of Systems Physiology and Metabolic Diseases at ETH Zurich and received the ETH medal for his thesis on deciphering signalling pathways involved in pancreatic beta-cell function. After working as management consultant, Jens joined the pharmaceutical industry and has since taken on various roles in different markets at local, regional and global levels. His mission is to connect diverse people to foster creativity and bring innovation to patients.