Jeffrey Leiden is an American physician, scientist and businessman who is the executive chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts.

[8] In 1992, Leiden moved to the University of Chicago as the Rawson Professor of Medicine and Pathology and chief of the Division of Cardiology.

[9] In 1996, Leiden, along with Elizabeth and Gary Nabel founded Cardiogene, a gene therapy company, which was subsequently acquired by Boston Scientific.

[7] Leiden moved to Abbott Labs in June 2000, as senior vice president and chief scientific officer.

Later that year, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer and oversaw all aspects of the company’s global pharmaceutical business, where he led the development and launch of Kaletra and Humira.

[16] In 2015 Leiden established a collaboration between Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics that led to the discovery and development of Casgevy, (exagamglogene autotemcel; formerly known as CTX001),[17] the first gene editing treatment to show curative potential for two human genetic diseases, sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia.

[32][33] On June 20, 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, (NICE) said in its final draft guidance that Orkambi, Symkevi, and Kaftrio are recommended for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis, with Vertex coming to a long-term, extended, reimbursement agreement[34] with the NHS.

[35][36][37] This final decision differs from its provisional draft guidance from November 2023 that recommended that the three drugs were above the acceptable range of NHS resources in terms of cost effectiveness, despite positive outcomes for Cystic Fibrosis patients.

[47] In May 2022 Leiden was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Odyssey Therapeutics, a company developing novel medicines for cancer and auto-immune disease.

[48] Leiden was named a Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 in 1994; and served as a member of the NHLBI Board of Scientific Counselors between 1994 and 1999.

[72][73] In December 2017, Leiden and his wife Lisa established a professorship in translational medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

[74] The Leidens are also major donors to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Ariadne Labs and the Bottom Line Foundation.