Shyam Bishen

Dr. Shyam Bishen is joining the Forum from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he was Regional/Deputy Director of Life Sciences Partnerships in Seattle. Before working at the Gates Foundation, he was Head of Emerging Markets Strategy and Innovation as well as Vice President & General Manager of Biosimilars Business Unit at Merck, based out of the company headquarters in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Bishen was Vice President of Corporate Development at Ranbaxy based in New Delhi, India and Princeton, New Jersey.  Before moving to Ranbaxy, he worked with Pfizer/Pharmacia in New Jersey and Schein in New York.

Most recently at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Bishen was responsible for partnering to harness advances in healthcare science and technology to save lives. He and his team worked with partners to deliver proven tools—including vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics—as well as discover pathbreaking new global health solutions that are affordable and reliable. Before moving to this role, Dr. Bishen headed up Emerging Markets Strategy, Innovation, and Biosimilars commercialization at Merck. At Ranbaxy, Dr. Bishen was leading corporate strategy and business development. Dr. Bishen worked at Schein Inc., as Vice President of Business Development where he was responsible for leading the pharmaceutical business development initiatives including biologics and vaccines. At Pfizer/Pharmacia, he was Director of Corporate Strategy, wherein he led strategic planning and business development programs. Before joining the Pharma industry, Dr. Bishen was in academia and worked on anticancer research as an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He has published over 20 research papers and received several US patents in drug discovery and development.

Dr. Bishen is qualified with a Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Newcastle. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Bishen is married to Indira and is blessed with two children – his daughter, Priya recently completed her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and is now working as a business development executive at a Wall Street global investment firm in New York whereas his son, Jay is currently in a joint MBA/MPA program of the Wharton Business School and Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Bishen enjoys nature and traveling to historical and ancient cultural destinations.