Inventor of Covid vaccine
Noubar Afeyan is an American-Canadian entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist. He is best known for co-founding the biotechnology company Moderna, through his venture capital firm, Flagship Pioneering, and for co-founding humanitarian projects such as Aurora Prize and The Future Armenian.
Afeyan was born to Armenian parents in Beirut, Lebanon in 1962. His grandfather survived the Armenian genocide. His family fled Lebanon in 1975, during the civil war there. He graduated from Loyola High School in Montreal in 1978. He received his B.Eng. in chemical engineering from McGill University in 1983 and then moved to the US and earned a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1987. He was the first Ph.D. graduate from MIT’s Center for Bioprocess Engineering, at the time the only institution with that degree program. He became a U.S. citizen in 2008.
Academic career
Afeyan has authored numerous scientific papers. He has patented over 100 inventions. Between 2000 and 2016 he was a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and is currently (as of 2020) a lecturer at Harvard Business School.
In July 2022, Afeyan was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree from Yerevan State University.
Business career
Afeyan started his first biotechnology company in 1987, just a few days before Black Monday, and founded or co-founded five more companies within ten years. By 2020 Afeyan had co-founded and developed 41 start-ups. In total, he co-founded or helped build over 50 life science and technology startups.
Afeyan is the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a venture capital company focused on biotechnology, in 2000. The firm has « fostered the development of more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in $20 billion in total value and over 500 patents. » According to the company website, Flagship Pioneering has « fostered the development of more than 100 scientific ventures resulting in $30 billion in aggregate value, thousands of patents and patent applications, and more than 50 drugs in clinical development. »
In 2009 Afeyan co-founded Moderna (formerly ModeRNA Therapeutics) and currently serves as its chairman. He owns over 2 million shares in the company; in 2018, Moderna had the biggest IPO in the biotech industry’s history.
In 2021, Afeyan announced that Moderna would not enforce its patent rights against anyone using those patents to make COVID-19 vaccines.
In 1988, he founded PerSeptive Biosystems and served as its CEO. The company’s annual revenues grew to $100 million and in 1998 was acquired by PerkinElmer/Applera and became CBO of Applera. There he oversaw the creation of Celera Genomics.
Philanthropy
Afeyan sits on the boards of the MIT Corporation, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU).
Afeyan has worked closely with other prominent Armenian diaspora philanthropists, most notably Ruben Vardanyan on projects related to Armenia. Afeyan had partnered with Vardanyan to establish Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA), which according to the Armenian government, has between 2007 and 2017 implemented different projects with a total cost of $550 million. Earlier, in 2001 Afeyan, Vardanyan and others launched the « Armenia 2020 » initiative, which aimed to identify development prospects for Armenia until 2020. It has since been expanded to 2031.
In 2008 Afeyan, Vardanyan and others co-founded the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership dedicated to promoting economic development in the country.
With Vardanyan and Vartan Gregorian, Afeyan co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in 2015. It includes The 100 Lives initiative, which celebrates survivors and rescuers of the Armenian genocide, and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, an annual award given to an individual (and an affiliated organization) who has faced personal risk to enable others to survive since 2016.
Afeyan is a member of the board of UWC Dilijan International School in Armenia, founded by Vardanyan in 2014., a founding angel of Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST). and Future Armenian public initiative.
He points to his immigrant background and mentality as the driving forces of his philanthropic, scientific, and business work.
Recognition
- Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2008)
- Armenian Prime Minister’s Commemorative Medal for Patriotic Activities (2012)
- Technology Pioneer award, World Economic Forum (2012)
- Medal of Services to the Motherland (2014) by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
- Great Immigrants Recipient, Carnegie Corporation of New York (2016)
- Lebanon’s Order of Merit, presented by Ambassador Gabriel Issa, on behalf of President Michel Aoun, at the Embassy of Lebanon in Washington D.C. (2021)
- In 2020, Afeyan was recognized as one of four immigrants leading the efforts to find a vaccine for COVID-19.
- In 2022, Afeyan was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.) from his alma mater McGill University
- In 2021, Afeyan was selected as a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst.
