Penny M. Heaton is an American physician who is the Global Therapeutics Lead for Vaccines at

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

. She previously worked at

Novavax Novavax, Inc. is an American biotechnology company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that develops vaccines to counter serious infectious diseases. Prior to 2020, company scientists developed experimental vaccines for influenza and respiratory sy ...

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

and the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

. She was included by

Stat News Stat (stylized STAT, sometimes also called Stat News) is an American health-oriented news website launched on November 4, 2015, by John W. Henry, the owner of ''The Boston Globe''. It is produced by Boston Globe Media and is headquartered in th ...

on their definitive list of leaders in the life sciences in 2022.

Early life and education

Heaton has said that she was inspired to work on vaccine development after hearing her father suffered from tuberculosis before she was born. She has credited her high school science teachers with teaching her the importance of blind controlled trials. She was an undergraduate and medical student at the

University of Louisville School of Medicine The University of Louisville School of Medicine at the University of Louisville is a medical school located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Opened as the Louisville Medical Institute in 1837, it is one of the oldest medical schools in No ...

. She remained there as a medical resident in pediatrics. She worked as a services officer for Epidemic Intelligence at the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...

, studying food-borne viruses in infants born to

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

positive mothers. She went on to work in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, where she investigated the roll-out of vaccines in impoverished populations in

Kisumu Kisumu ( ) is the third-largest city in Kenya located in the Lake Victoria area in the former Nyanza Province. It is the second-largest city after Kampala in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city has a population of slightly over 600,000. The ...

Career

On returning to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Heaton joined Merck & Co. Under her leadership the foundation developed the vaccine for ''

rotavirus Rotaviruses are the most common cause of diarrhea, diarrhoeal disease among infants and young children. Nearly every child in the world is infected with a rotavirus at least once by the age of five. Immunity (medical), Immunity develops with ...

'' and delivered the Rotavirus Safety and Efficacy Trials. The vaccine was recommended by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

for all infants around the world, and was predicted to save almost two million lives over the course of ten years. Heaton was made Global Head of Vaccine Research Clusters at

where she worked on maternal immunization, with a particular focus on

Group B streptococcal infection A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

. She worked on vaccines against

Meningococcal meningitis Meningococcal disease is a serious infection caused by ''Neisseria meningitidis'', also known as meningococcus, a gram negative diplococcus. Meningococcal disease includes meningitis, meningococcal septicemia, or a combination of both, which c ...

, including Bexsero and Men. After 3 years at

, Heaton joined the

as Director of Vaccine Development and focssed on developing vaccines for diseases that impact the world's most vulnerable communities. Heaton was made

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Medical Research Institute in 2017. She was recruited as global lead for vaccines at

in 2021.

Awards and honors

* 2018

Alumni of the Year * 2020

National Foundation for Infectious Diseases The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (abbreviated NFID) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public and medical community about infectious diseases. It was established in 1973 and is based in Bethesda, Mary ...

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award Recipient * 2020 Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Distinguished Research Award * 2022

Status List

Selected publications

* * *

References

21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Johnson & Johnson people University of Louisville School of Medicine alumni Novartis people {{more cats, date=February 2022