New Senior Level Appointments in IAVI’s Medical Affairs Department

IAVI is very pleased to share some important news regarding the new appointments of two highly-valued, integral senior staff in our Medical Affairs Department.

Pat Fast, most recently Chief Medical Officer at IAVI, has transitioned into the role ofSenior Technical Advisor in Research and Development, effective February 1, 2013.  Pat will have specific responsibilities in IAVI’s epidemiology work, leading the Epidemiology for Vaccine Advancement, Capacity and Science (EpiVACS) program to facilitate the design of an AIDS vaccine appropriate for Africa and to facilitate the conduct of clinical trials in five African countries at IAVI-supported research centers. She will also focus on specific partnerships to maximize IAVI’s existing collaborations in Africa, aiming to support studies to define key populations at risk of HIV for future trials—including high-risk fishing communities on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, men who have sex with men (MSM) and others—and to secure support from potential partners such as the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. Pat has been a key contributor to IAVI’s new Central Services Facility (CSF), which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and she will continue to provide high-level strategic support to that initiative as it is expanded in 2013 and beyond. In her new role, Pat will devote about 70 percent of her time to IAVI, about half of which will be focused on support to the CSF, and the other half devoted to the epidemiology work and our Africa collaborations. IAVI would like to take this opportunity to recognize Pat’s leadership, commitment, and trailblazing contributions to IAVI since joining in 2001. To say that Pat has made her mark on IAVI and in the HIV vaccine field is an obvious understatement: she is a legend among us and among our partners, donors, and peers. Over the course of more than 12 years, Pat has led the development of IAVI’s clinical research program—including 13 AIDS vaccine clinical trials and the development of the capacity of partners to conduct some of the first-ever clinical trials in developing countries. She also forged many important, long-lasting partnerships with colleagues in Africa and around the world.  Pat deserves great credit and respect for what she has built both within IAVI and externally in the field and for partners.

IAVI is also pleased to announce that Frances Priddy, MD, MPH, has been appointed to the position of Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director for IAVI Medical Affairs, Research and Development, in the New York office, reporting to Tom Hassell, VP Vaccine Development, effective February 1, 2013.

Fran will lead the Medical Affairs group, including managing staff at headquarters as well as overseeing regional medical, epidemiological, clinical operations and data management in the planning and conduct of HIV vaccine trials and epidemiology studies, and ensuring that IAVI-sponsored clinical research is conducted in an ethical and scientifically and medically sound manner. As Chief Medical Officer, Fran will continue capacity building and development of partnerships with clinical sites in Africa and potentially other locations.

Please join us in congratulating Fran and Pat on their new appointments and in wishing them every success in their new endeavors.

About Pat Fast, MD, PhD
Pat received her MD at Michigan State University, is board certified in pediatrics (University of Michigan), and also holds a PhD in immunology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). She has worked for over 20 years on the clinical development of vaccines.  She joined IAVI from the biotechnology company Aviron, where she oversaw studies of vaccines against influenza and cytomegalovirus. Before that, she led clinical research on HIV vaccines while serving as associate director for vaccines and prevention at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Division of AIDS. Pat also serves as the Chair for the Vaccine Advisory Committee of Aeras, currently serves on the UNAIDS/WHO Vaccine Advisory Committee, and has teaching duties at Stanford University. 

About Fran Priddy, MD, MPH
Fran has over 10 years experience leading HIV prevention clinical trial programs, both in the U.S. and Africa. Since joining IAVI as a medical director in 2006, Fran has managed planning and implementation for clinical development of IAVI-sponsored vaccine candidates, primarily in Africa, with a special focus on preparing for efficacy trials and understanding the impact of new prevention technologies.  She led the design and implementation of two novel oral PrEP trials sponsored by IAVI, which provided the first data on the adherence and acceptability of intermittent PrEP regimens in at-risk African populations. She led the clinical aspects of IAVI’s Protocol G to identify novel neutralizing antibodies from HIV-infected volunteers in twelve countries.

Prior to her work with IAVI, Fran was an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease at Emory University School of Medicine.  She served as Medical Director of the Emory Vaccine Center’s clinical trials site, where she was principal investigator for eight phase 1 and 2B HIV vaccine and microbicide clinical trials.  Fran has hands-on experience caring for patients as an attending physician on the inpatient and outpatient HIV services at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. In addition to HIV vaccines, Fran’s research focused on development of novel HIV prevention technologies for women. Fran received the first CDC contract to conduct domestic HIV microbicide clinical trials in the U.S. and established a $2.2 million microbicide clinical trial program at Emory. With colleagues, she published the first description of acceptability of intravaginal rings in African female sex workers and led a collaborative program with University of Nairobi to identify a new high incidence sex worker cohort in Nairobi. Fran received her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, is board certified in internal medicine and holds a Masters in public health from University of California, Berkeley.  Her prior research and field experience in Africa includes HIV-related work in Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Zaire.