Juan A. Ruiz, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Juan A. Ruiz, Ph.D., M.B.A. was Deputy Director for Science at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Office of Translational Sciences until December 2022. Prior to CDER he served as Vice President for Science at Nestlé Health Science (NHS), leading R&D and Manufacturing initiatives as well as the Clinical, Scientific Affairs, and Pipeline Development groups at the U.S. Medical Foods division delivering medically-supervised, science-based personalized solutions for the nutritional management of chronic medical conditions, including mild cognitive impairment, depressive disorder, diabetic peripheral neuropathy and high-risk pregnancy.

Before joining NHS, he was a Senior Director at Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., a Cambridge, MA biotechnology startup later acquired by Shire Plc where he took on leadership roles in early discovery and research driving drug development efforts culminating in market launching a range of therapeutic biologics for rare lysosomal storage diseases, including Fabry Disease, Gaucher Disease and Hunter Syndrome as well as a novel peptide therapeutic for the treatment of Hereditary Angioedema from the company’s ‘Peptides-to-Drugs’ platform. Prior to Shire he had R&D leadership roles at Instrumentation Laboratory SpA, a unit of Werfen, a multinational headquartered in Barcelona, Spain delivering worldwide specialized clinical diagnostics systems for blood coagulation and at Baxter International Inc. leading programs in precision diagnostics, biomarkers and biologics in the field of Thrombosis and Hemostasis.

His diverse career spans the public and private sectors across multiple geographies and cultures, and arms him with broad clinical, regulatory and operational experience in biotherapeutics, medical devices, and foods, including a deep understanding of drug development, from discovery through clinicals, drug registration and commercialization as well as numerous collaborative programs with leading academics, NIH and patient advocacy groups.

Juan earned his B.S. in Chemistry, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine) and M.B.A. in Finance and International Business (Herbert School of Business), all at the University of Miami (UM). His graduate and post-graduate training focused on mechanisms of hormone action, G-proteins, and cellular signal transduction at UM’s Earl W. Sutherland Research Laboratories.