Dr. Martin Mackay is the President of Research & Development at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. He leads a global organisation tasked with advancing a portfolio on investigational medicines across a range of disease areas. Martin is a member of the AstraZeneca Senior Executive Team, Portfolio Investment Board and the Science Committee. Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2010, Martin was the President of PharmaTherapeutics Research & Development at Pfizer. His career at Pfizer spanned 15 years, where he held various leadership roles, including the President of Research & Development.

Born in Scotland, Martin earned a first class honours degree in Microbiology at Heriot-Watt University and a PhD in Molecular Genetics at the University of Edinburgh. Between degrees he worked in Antibacterial Discovery at Beecham Pharmaceuticals in Surrey, UK. Martin conducted his postdoctoral research fellowship working on malarial vaccines with Professor John Scaife at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Uli Certa at Hoffman La-Roche Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland. Martin joined the Advanced Drug Delivery Research Unit at Ciba-Geigy in the UK and became the Head of Drug Preformulation and Delivery. In 1993, he moved to Ciba’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland as Head of Molecular and Cell Biology, CNS Research, where he led an international team of researchers until his move to Pfizer in 1995.

He serves on the Scientific and Regulatory Committee of the industry trade group PhRMA and co-chairs the US-India BioPharma & Healthcare Summit Advisory Board. Martin is a Visiting Professor at the University of Lincoln, UK.