Laurent Fraisse

Laurent Fraisse joined the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initative (DNDi) as Research & Development (R&D) Director and Executive Team member in October 2019. In this capacity he drives DNDi’s science strategy and oversees all research and clinical activities worldwide.

Laurent is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical executive, and a leading expert in infectious diseases, having led R&D for large pharmaceutical firms such as Sanofi and Evotec, and served as chair of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Strategic Governing Group dedicated to infectious diseases. 

Laurent joined Sanofi in 1999 after a ten-year tenure as a science leader in Elf Atochem. During 20 years at Sanofi, he rose to serve as Vice President for Infectious Disease R&D, addressing medical needs in bacterial, parasitic, and viral related infections. He then joined Evotec as Executive Vice President for infectious diseases with the mission to accelerate the infectious disease research pipeline development and initiate new open innovation R&D initiatives.

Laurent graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie in Rennes, France, with a specialty in Biochemistry and was awarded a PhD in Biotechnology by the Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse in 1993.