Gary Herman, M.D.

Gary Herman, MD, is Vice President, Early Stage Development (ESD) at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL).

The ESD Organization, which enhances MRL’s integrated capabilities to support disease-based franchises, includes Clinical Pharmacology, Experimental Medicine, Product Value Extension, Imaging, Clinical Development Laboratory, and Modeling and Simulation. Dr. Herman oversees early development programs and is using biomarkers and experimental medicine approaches to drive earlier decision making and rigor in drug development.

Dr. Herman joined Merck in 2001 and has assumed roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to being named head of ESD in November 2009, Dr. Herman was vice president Experimental Medicine (EM) from 2006, where he was focused on leading the development and utilization of novel proof-of-concept paradigms to speed the discovery and development of new medicines. Prior to EM, he was senior director within Clinical Pharmacology. In that position, he primarily was involved in the early development of diabetes/obesity compounds. Most notably he was co-chair of the product development team for Januvia™ through the start of phase III and led the early development program through filing and approval. He also developed a number of experimental medicine models to provide early read on pharmacological activity.

In 2006, Dr. Herman was named an MRL Presidential fellow, an award that recognizes individuals who have contributed to Merck’s mission through significant achievements in drug discovery and development. In 2007, Dr. Herman was a recipient of a Merck Director’s Award for work on Januvia. In November 2008, Dr. Herman was elected to the Executive Committee as an industry representative to the Foundation for the NIH Biomarkers Consortium (joint FDA, NIH, and PhRMA).

Dr. Herman also plays a role on a number of strategic committees at MRL including the Research Strategy Review Committee (reviews early R&D strategy), the Early Development Review Committee (reviews programs in development from entry to humans through proof-of-concept) and chairs the Biomarker Alignment Committee (coordinates development of biomarker and experimental-medicine based platforms to ensure fit for purpose approaches to enabling early decision making in clinical development).

Dr. Herman is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego (summa cum laude) and Harvard Medical School. After training in pediatrics and gastroenterology and completing a research fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, he served as assistant professor at UCSF, where he ran a successful laboratory that focused on membrane trafficking. His research focused on transport of membrane proteins on the endosomal pathway with emphasis on the GLUT4, transferring receptor.

"Drug development is not a business that can be driven by an individual. Most cases of true innovation come from robust and honest collaboration amongst individuals with diverse backgrounds and capabilities joined together by the idea of changing the course of human health. Our partners are a tremendous enabler in this regard."