Eric A. Hughes, MD, PhD, became Executive Vice President, Global R&D and Chief Medical Officer in August 2022, and oversees a global organization of ~4,100 colleagues responsible for the discovery, development, registration, medical affairs and patient safety activities for Teva’s generics, biosimilar and innovative specialty pipelines and portfolios.

With one of the biggest and most diverse generics portfolios in the industry, a growing innovative specialty pipeline anchored in novel biologics, and one of the most robust biosimilar pipelines in healthcare today, Teva Global R&D under Eric’s leadership is uniquely positioned to support the company’s mission to improve the lives of patients.  Combining Teva’s resilient culture, deep scientific knowledge, and diverse technical expertise, Teva Global R&D develops a broad range of small molecule and biological medicines in a variety of delivery systems and more than 30 dosage forms.  As part of its growth strategy, Teva has made significant investments in next-generation biotechnology to combine its heritage in value creation and knowledge of complex molecules with “concept-to-clinic” capabilities to develop innovative biologics and biosimilars to feed its pipeline.

Eric is an accomplished scientist and licensed physician with specialty training in infectious diseases and immunology paired with nearly 20 years of experience in all phases of drug development in leading global pharmaceutical companies.  Prior to Teva, Eric was Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Translational Medicine at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US.  From 2015 to 2021, he was Global Development Unit Head for Immunology, Hepatology and Dermatology at Novartis in Switzerland, ultimately responsible for leading all clinical development activities and biostatistician talent across multiple therapeutic areas and for expanding development in China.

During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Eric served as Co-Chair of the Therapeutics Clinical Working Group for The Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines public-private partnership at The National Institutes of Health. 

Eric launched his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2004 at Bristol Myers-Squibb Company (BMS) and moved to Schering-Plough Research Institute in 2006.  Beginning in 2009, he spent a year at Merck Research Laboratories as the Director of Clinical Research for Hepatology before returning to BMS in 2010 where his career there culminated in 2015 as Head of Virology, Fibrotic Diseases, Genetically Defined Diseases, Autoimmunity, and Cardiology Discovery Medicine, Exploratory Clinical & Translational Research.

Eric earned his MD and PhD at Yale School of Medicine.  He completed his medical residency with the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital/Yale University School of Medicine, and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the Yale University School of Medicine.  He is a prolific and widely published scientist, co-authoring more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has a deep passion for helping patients.