Life Fest 2010 Awards

Dr. Vasella has implemented strong pioneering initiatives to ensure access to medicines, which include the founding of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases for research on neglected diseases of the developing world, the International Patient Assistance Program for the breakthrough GIST drug Gleevec/Glivec, an agreement to supply the novel malaria treatment Coartem® at cost to the World Health Organization and a pledge to donate the drug therapy needed to eradicate leprosy worldwide. Furthermore, under Dr. Vasella’s leadership, Novartis subscribed to the UN Global Compact initiative.

A 2004 readership survey of the Financial Times selected Dr. Vasella as the most influential European businessman of the past quarter century. In 2003, Dr. Vasella was awarded The CancerCare Human Services Award and also the Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award. Dr. Vasella was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Basel in 2002, and he was given the Appeal of Conscience Award in February 2000. In 1998, he received the AJ Congress Humanitarian Award. He has been honored with the Ordem Nacional do Cruzeiro do Sul (Brazil) and holds the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (France).

Before the Novartis merger, Dr. Vasella was CEO of Sandoz Pharma Ltd. and a member of the Sandoz Group Executive Committee. From 1988 to 1992, he was with Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corporation in the US, prior to which he held a number of medical positions in Switzerland. Dr. Vasella is a member of the Board of Directors of PepsiCo, Inc., United States. In addition, he is a member of the Chairman’s Council of DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany, and a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at the Harvard Business School. He is also President of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, a member of the International Board of Governors of the Peres Center for Peace in Israel and a member of the International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai.

Dr. Vasella is a two-time PharmaVOICE 100 winner, which is a life sciences magazine that annually profiles the men and women in the life-sciences industry who are truly making a difference. He is married and has three children. Dr. Vasella was honored by the Life Raft Group as the “Humanitarian of the Year” at Life Fest 2002 in Cambridge, Mass.

Dr. George D. Demetri is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Demetri received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College and medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1983, then went on to Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle. He then completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he has served as an Attending Physician since 1989. He is also an affiliate investigator with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

Dr. Demetri's research and clinical interests have focused on the translation of scientific discoveries into targeted drugs for the management of sarcomas as a model for solid tumor research and development. This work has led to the development of the oral drug Gleevec as an effective treatment for the gastrointestinal sarcoma known as GIST, and is continuing with the research leading to the new multi-targeted agent SU11248 for GIST resistant to Gleevec.
A fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Demetri is a member of many professional societies and editorial boards of scientific journals. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, the chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Sarcoma Alliance, and a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Sarcoma Foundation of America. He has been instrumental in raising awareness of issues relating to sarcoma research and care by his activities on the Internet, and he founded a non-profit educational site for sarcoma patients and their families.

Virginia (Vicky) was born and raised in Bolivia, where she attended University in La Paz, later graduating from the University of Arkansas with a major in Sociology.

A mother of two, Vicky started her volunteer work at age 12 as a girl scout.  At age 17, she helped illiterate people to read and write as part of a program of the Catholic Church. She went on to join a volunteer organization, Partners of the Americas, where she was trained in gardening to help communities in need, and also helped with an educational reform program in rural areas of Bolivia. 

For the last seven years, Vicky and her husband Marcelo Levy have owned an animal refuge center in a small paradise two hours away from La Paz, where they care for more than 250 animals.

Vicky has been a member of the LRG since January 2006, when her daughter, Carolina was diagnosed with GIST. Since then, she has assisted the Life Raft Group with various projects including the translation of educational materials, coordination of international meetings and most recently, helping to launch the Latin American GIST Coalition.