Dr. Neil McDonnell is Senior Vice President in the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Therapeutic Area at Takeda Pharmaceuticals International. Prior to his work at Takeda, Dr. McDonnell was Deputy Director of Strategy for Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, providing strategy and portfolio planning advice to the President of Global Health on a complex and diverse product development pipeline, an array of global health partnerships, and implementation projects in developing countries. He served as a strategy and portfolio management consultant to individual program teams as they periodically revised their strategies to optimize health impact among the poor. Previously, Neil was Chief of Staff for Global Health at the foundation.
Before joining the foundation, Neil was vice president of program management at the biotechnology firm ZymoGenetics, overseeing its portfolio of products in development. Prior to that, he spent 9 years in development and commercial operations at Immunex Corporation. He began his career in healthcare as a clinical pharmacist in hematology/oncology and gynecologic oncology at the University of Washington Medical Center. He has product development experience in a variety of therapeutic areas, including medical and surgical hemostasis, oncology, rheumatology, and asthma.
Neil received both his Pharm.D and B.S. Pharm from the University of Washington. He completed a general residency in hospital pharmacy at the University of Washington and Harborview medical centers.