Moderna Appoints Arpa Garay as Chief Commercial Officer

Moderna recently announced that Arpa Garay will join the company as chief commercial officer, effective May 31, 2022.

Garay joins Modera from Merck & Co, where she became an expert in oncology, vaccines, specialty, and chronic care over 16 years. In her various roles at Merck, she drove business growth in the United States, led mergers and acquisitions, and built diverse teams.

First, Garay served as president of global oncology digital and led the commercialization of pipeline assets and business development for the company's oncology portfolio. Additionally, she served as president of global pharmaceuticals, analytics, and digital marketing; senior vice president and head of US vaccines; and general manager of Merck & Co in Norway.

Most recently, Garay was a member of the executive committee and served as chief marketing officer for Merck's human health business, reporting to the company's chief executive officer.  

In this role, Garay was responsible for long-term portfolio strategy and global marketing for Merck's in-line and pipeline human health medicines and vaccines, including global market access and pricing strategy, data, and analytics, digital marketing, and commercial business development.

At Moderna, Garay will serve on Moderna's executive committee and report to chief executive officer Stéphane Bancel.

"I am very pleased to welcome Arpa to Moderna as our Chief Commercial Officer and to the Executive Committee. Arpa brings extensive experience leading commercial teams at global biopharmaceutical companies in an evolving global healthcare environment," Bancel said in the announcement.

"Arpa is an innovative thinker with digital expertise and broad international experience, having lived in many countries. I look forward to partnering with Arpa as we advance our mission of delivering on the promise of mRNA medicines for people around the world," he continued.

Garay stated that she is excited to work with an inspiring team and build a commercial organization to bring Moderna's mRNA  "transformative impact" to improve lives globally across many diseases.