About Thomas Cueni

As former Director General of the global industry body, IFPMA, I have represented the research-based biopharmaceutical industry for more than seven years and served as Secretary of the Biopharmaceutical CEO Roundtable (BCR) for 36 years. Throughout my career representing the industry in Switzerland and on a global level, I was not only an assertive advocate on behalf of the innovative pharmaceutical industry, but was also able to play a role in pioneering policy and access projects, including the $1bn AMR Action Fund, the Berlin Declaration industry commitment for equitable rollout of medical countermeasures in future pandemics, and representing industry on the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. During my time at IFPMA I also acted as Chair of the Business at OECD Health Committee, a founding member of the Board of Directors of the City Cancer Challenge, an initiative aiming to improve cancer care in major cities in low- and middle-income countries, and founding of the Board of the cross-sectoral AMR Industry Alliance, a group which includes more than 100 companies and associations representing Rx pharma, generics, biotech, and diagnostics.

I studied economics at the University of Basel, graduating with a Masters degree, and political science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where I graduated with another Masters degree. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, I was a journalist, inter alia London correspondent for Swiss newspapers during the first term of Margaret Thatcher, and my opinion columns and commentary have been accepted in the New York Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Lancet, Project Syndicate, STAT, and other news outlets around the globe. I also worked for the Swiss Foreign Ministry as a career diplomat with multilateral postings in Paris (OECD) and Vienna (UNIDO, IAEA).