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Jeremy Levin, D.Phil, MB BChir, is co-founder and executive chairman of Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OVID), a public company developing novel medicines to treat epilepsies and seizure-related disorders. Dr. Levin is concurrently the chairman of Opthea (NASDAQ: OPT). Prior to founding Ovid, Dr. Levin was president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., (TLV: TEVA). Before Teva, Dr. Levin was a member of the executive committee Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY). In that capacity, he was the architect, lead and implementer of the String of Pearls Strategy, which transformed Bristol and facilitated the dawn and massive growth of the immuno-oncology revolution in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Levin joined Bristol from Novartis (NYSE: NVS), where he was the global head of strategic alliances. He has previously served as a member of the board of directors of various public biopharmaceutical companies, including Biocon Ltd. (NSE: BIOCON) and Lundbeck (OMX: LUN). Dr. Levin also serves on the board and executive committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) as the immediate past chairman.
Dr. Levin was voted as one of the 25 most influential biotechnology leaders by Fierce Biotech, one of the top three biotechnology CEOs by The Healthcare Technology Report and one of the PharmaVoice100 CEOs in 2020 and 2021. He was selected by Endpoints in 2021 as one of the 60 living pioneers of the industry. He is the recipient of the Albert Einstein Award for Leadership in Life Sciences and the B’nai B’rith Award for Distinguished Achievement. In June 2020, he edited and published the best seller “Biotechnology in the Time of Covid-19”. Dr Levin has been widely quoted and interviewed in national and international news outlets and life science industry-related publications. He believes that the role of leaders in business is to take a public stand on public policy matters as a core part of their business strategy and responsibility to shareholders, industry and society. He is committed to a public stance on key aspects of society and industry, including, but not limited to: encouraging immigration; policies that drive innovation; patient access to medicines; the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion; the primacy of medicine and science as the sole determinants to develop medical products; and the democratic right to vote for all citizens.
Dr. Levin has practiced medicine at university hospitals in England, South Africa and Switzerland. Dr. Levin earned a First-Class Bachelor in Zoology, winning the University Prize, and subsequently, was awarded a master’s degree and doctorate in chromatin structure, at the University of Oxford. Thereafter, he earned his medical and surgical degrees from the University of Cambridge, where he won the Kermode Prize for his work on Captopril.