Dr. Tal Zaks, the outgoing chief medical officer of Moderna, Inc, was elected to the Teva board of directors effective October 1. He will serve on the board’s science and technology committee.
Zaks, 56, has been serving as Moderna’s CMO since 2015. He announced his departure from the company earlier this year and will continue to serve as a special advisor to Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel until September.
He was replaced by former Johnson & Johnson executive Dr. Paul Burton.
Zak’s salary will be the same as other non-executive directors, as declared to the US Securities and Exchange Committee in April 2020.
The Israeli scientist, who graduated from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, still has family in Israel, including his elderly mother who lives in Ra’anana.
He played a strategic role in securing Israel’s original contract with Moderna for two million vaccine doses, which it later expanded to six million after the company applied for emergency use authorization from the US Food & Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency, which it subsequently received. In April, Israel purchased another 17 million doses from the company.
Zaks told The Jerusalem Post last year, before Moderna had completed its clinical trials, “The pressure is coming from within” and that he took the success or failure of the vaccine personally.
“We are all affected by it,” he said. “I take this responsibility deeply and personally.”
On Wednesday, Moderna announced that it had applied for full FDA approval.