# Thomas Lake

> Thomas 'Tom' Lake is a Greater Philadelphia biotechnology executive and Vaxxas chief business officer whose 35-plus-year career has followed vaccines from the production floor to product strategy, startups, partnerships and commercialization. A University of Maryland biology graduate with an MBA from Villanova, he spent 18 years at Merck, led U.S. vaccine marketing at GSK, founded vaccine-related businesses and joined Vaxxas after approaching the company in 2017 about its high-density microarray patch platform.

- **Role:** Chief Business Officer at Vaxxas
- **Organizations:** Vaxxas, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, MinibarRx, Optical Inventory Solutions, FastVax Clinics, Lake Vaccines
- **Education:** B.S. in Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, MBA, Villanova University
- **Known for:** Built a 35-plus-year career spanning vaccine manufacturing, operations, marketing, entrepreneurship and commercialization., Rose from vaccine technician to senior director of vaccine operations during an 18-year career at Merck., Served as manufacturing alliance manager during the startup of the Merck-Sanofi Pasteur European joint venture.

## Career timeline

- **1988** — Graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in biological sciences and began work as a vaccine technician at Merck in Philadelphia.
- **1988-2007** — Spent 18 years at Merck, moving from hands-on vaccine manufacturing to become senior director of vaccine operations; his work included production, sterile filling, quality control and an alliance-management role during the startup of the Merck-Sanofi Pasteur European joint venture.
- **2007** — Left Merck to start a small vaccine administration company, identified elsewhere in his public record as FastVax Clinics.
- **2009** — Returned to large pharmaceutical business to lead U.S. vaccine marketing at GSK.
- **2010s** — Founded and led vaccine-related ventures including MinibarRx and Optical Inventory Solutions, and worked as a senior commercialization consultant.
- **2017** — After researching microarray-patch technologies, contacted Vaxxas' CEO and began working with the company as a consultant on government and pharmaceutical contracts.
- **2022-2025** — Represented Vaxxas publicly as senior vice president for strategic alliances and commercialization, speaking on manufacturing scale-up, pandemic response, self-administration and commercialization.
- **2026** — Serves as Vaxxas chief business officer, focused on funding, production scale-up and pharmaceutical partnerships for the HD-MAP platform.

## Achievements

- Built a 35-plus-year career spanning vaccine manufacturing, operations, marketing, entrepreneurship and commercialization.
- Rose from vaccine technician to senior director of vaccine operations during an 18-year career at Merck.
- Served as manufacturing alliance manager during the startup of the Merck-Sanofi Pasteur European joint venture.
- Led U.S. vaccine marketing at GSK.
- Founded vaccine-related ventures concerned with administration and inventory management.
- Helped Vaxxas secure government and pharmaceutical contracts after joining first as a consultant.
- Presented Vaxxas' microarray-patch work at industry and global-health forums, including a WHO meeting in India and World Vaccine Congress programs.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Listed as Vaxxas chief business officer and scheduled to speak at World Vaccine Congress Europe on delivering vaccination through high-density microarray patches.
- **2026-02** — Featured by the University of Maryland in an alumni profile detailing his 35-plus-year vaccine career and goal of bringing Vaxxas' patch platform to market.
- **2025-10** — Appeared on the PODD 2025 faculty for a session on enabling at-home delivery of vaccines.
- **2025-03** — Vaxxas announced approximately A$90 million in financing to support commercialization, automated manufacturing and later-stage clinical programs.
- **2024-04** — Presented Vaxxas' measles-rubella clinical results and plans for a Phase I/II trial in The Gambia at a WHO meeting in India.

## Links

- Website: https://www.vaxxas.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlake4vaccine

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/thomas-lake
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28