PhRMA Foundation Welcomes Robert Plenge to the Board of Directors

The PhRMA Foundation today announced the appointment to its Board of Directors of Robert Plenge, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President, Head of Research at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). Dr. Plenge replaces Board member Rupert Vessey, MA, BM, BCh, FRCP, DPhil, who retired from his role as President of Research & Early Development at BMS.

“The PhRMA Foundation is pleased to welcome Dr. Plenge to our esteemed Board,” said Amy M. Miller, PhD, President of the PhRMA Foundation. “His invaluable expertise and passion for connecting therapeutic modalities to complex disease mechanisms to accelerate the future of drug discovery and development will help guide the Foundation as we foster innovative biopharmaceutical research.”

“I am incredibly honored to be elected to the Board of the PhRMA Foundation,” Dr. Plenge said. “This opportunity allows me to support the future workforce in biopharmaceuticals and to work alongside dedicated individuals who share a common vision of transforming health care through novel applications of fundamental biology, extensive data analytics, and strategic collaborations that help advance tomorrow’s breakthroughs for patients.”

In his new role at BMS, Dr. Plenge leads scientific activities across 11 research sites around the world, all focused on transforming patients’ lives through science. Prior to his current role, he served as Senior Vice President, Head of Discovery & Translational Sciences at BMS, which spanned all therapeutic areas at the company. Dr. Plenge joined BMS as part of the acquisition of Celgene in November 2019. At Celgene, he served as Vice President, Immunology & Inflammation portfolio, Research & Early Development. Prior to joining Celgene, he was Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Merck.

Dr. Plenge received his MD and PhD from Case Western Reserve University and holds a BS from the University of California, San Diego. He completed his internal medicine residency as a molecular medicine fellow at University of California, San Francisco. He served as rheumatology fellow at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral research fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute while practicing clinical rheumatology and running a research laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

View the PhRMA Foundation Board of Directors.