Dr Jeremy David Gale
BSc Pharmacology 1985
Position and company: Vice-President at Pfizer Inc
Dr Jeremy Gale has come a long way from the labs of City Campus, where he gained his degree in Pharmacology 38 years ago.
He is a research scientist working in the pharmaceutical industry. Jeremy is Vice-President and Clinical Portfolio Leader in the Pfizer Inflammation and Immunology Research Unit in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He joined Pfizer in 1995 to lead the Gastrointestinal Discovery Biology group at the Sandwich site in the UK and then joined the Experimental Medicine group in 2002. Since 2008, he has been leading clinical development activities across several areas of internal medicine, including nephrology, as either Global Project Leader or Clinical Lead. In 2011 he moved to Massachusetts where he currently lives.
He explained: “My current role is to lead drug development projects, involving the identification of potential new medicines to advance into clinical testing in patients. I am responsible for the development and execution of these plans and the design of clinical trials.”
Asked about his biggest achievement to date, Jeremy said: “Taking new molecules into humans for the first time and seeing a positive impact on disease in patients.”
Asked about his biggest challenge, he said: “Unfortunately, much research is ultimately unsuccessful. It is very impactful emotionally to put 100% for several years into something that ultimately fails. Thankfully the successes more than make up for it.”
Jeremy has fond memories of Sunderland.
“To be honest the course was the major ‘pull’, although the attractiveness of living in more urban environment was a factor in choosing Sunderland,” he admitted. “The Pharmacology course appeared to be a synthesis of multiple aspects of the science that I loved, with the application to medicine discovery, which I aspired to. It turned out to be all that and more, and I enjoyed it very much.”
He continued: “Life in Sunderland taught me self-reliance and a love of urban living. From the staff of the Pharmacology course, DF “Max” Weetman and Patrick Caesar inspired me to follow a research career.”
There is no doubting Dr Gale’s achievements, and the continued impact of his and his dedicated team’s research worldwide, and he is very clear about what it takes to be successful in any career.
“Keep an open mind, stay curious and follow your passions,” he said.
Talking about his future plans he concluded: “To continue doing the work that I love for as long as possible.”