Vaxcyte hires CMO and CLO as VAX-31 readout moves to October
Vaxcyte has bolstered its C-suite ahead of a critical data readout, appointing Luis Jodar as Chief Medical Officer and David McAvoy as Chief Legal Officer. The San Carlos, California-based vaccine company also tightened its guidance for topline results from the VAX-31 OPUS-1 Phase 3 pivotal trial, narrowing the window from the full fourth quarter to the end of October 2026.
The appointments arrive at a telling moment for the NASDAQ-listed company, which is preparing for both the OPUS-1 readout and a planned Biologics Licence Application (BLA) submission for VAX-31, its 31-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) candidate.
The new leadership
Jodar brings more than 30 years in vaccine development, including 17 years at Pfizer where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases. In that role he held senior responsibility for Prevnar 13 and Prevnar 20, the two PCV products that have dominated the adult pneumococcal market globally. He also worked with the World Health Organization on the Meningitis Vaccine Project, which produced MenAfriVac, now distributed to over 400 million people across sub-Saharan Africa, and previously served as Deputy Director General of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul. His direct experience with PCV regulatory strategy and commercial launch is a clear signal of the phase Vaxcyte is entering.
McAvoy joins from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, where he led a legal, compliance and government affairs function of 235 people. He previously served as General Counsel of Endocyte through its $2.1 billion acquisition by Novartis, which ultimately produced the radiopharmaceutical Pluvicto. Earlier, he spent 27 years at Eli Lilly in senior legal roles spanning FDA counsel and international general counsel. Chief executive and co-founder Grant Pickering said the two appointments were intended to "deepen the leadership bench" required to carry VAX-31 through to potential commercialisation.
Market context and competitive positioning
The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine market is one of the most commercially significant in infectious disease, underpinned by Pfizer's Prevnar franchise and Merck's Vaxneuvance and Pneumovax products. Pfizer's Prevnar 20 currently covers 20 serotypes; VAX-31's 31-valent design is positioned by Vaxcyte as the broadest-spectrum PCV candidate in active clinical development. The OPUS programme has enrolled 6,191 adults across three trials, with approximately 3,500 receiving VAX-31. The studies were designed in alignment with the FDA and are intended to generate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity dataset needed for licensure.
The narrowed October readout window reduces calendar uncertainty for investors, though the data will still need to demonstrate non-inferiority on immunogenicity endpoints before the company can proceed confidently to BLA filing. Topline results from the companion OPUS-2 and OPUS-3 trials are expected in the first half of 2027. Jodar's decades of hands-on experience navigating FDA advisory committees for PCV programmes may prove particularly relevant as Vaxcyte approaches that submission, given the agency's established but demanding expectations for this vaccine class.
Beyond VAX-31, Vaxcyte's pipeline includes VAX-24, a 24-valent candidate with positive Phase 2 data in adults and infants, a Group A Streptococcus vaccine in Phase 1, and an earlier-stage Shigella candidate. The company produces its conjugate vaccines using XpressCF, a cell-free protein synthesis platform exclusively licensed from Sutro Biopharma, which it argues enables more precise conjugation chemistry than conventional cell-based manufacturing.