Gigi Hirsch, M.D.
Executive Director,
MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation
Dr. Hirsch is the Executive Director of the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI)which catalyzes and leads collaborative research programs involving faculty and students from across MIT’s campus as well as external stakeholders from the global healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.
Her current efforts at CBI largely center on leading the New Drug Development Paradigms program (NEWDIGS), a unique collaboration focused on re-engineering key elements of the global biomedical innovation ecosystem to deliver new, better, affordable therapeutics to the right patients faster. Under her leadership, NEWDIGS’ innovative approach to aligning stakeholders around more adaptive approaches to pharmaceutical regulation have been recognized as an important prototype for research-driven policy change by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) in the US, and by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in the EU. Building on the foundation laid by NEWDIGS from 2010-2013, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is now leading the world’s first pilot projects in adaptive licensing.
Dr. Hirsch has held a number of leadership roles that leverage her broad clinical background (internal medicine, emergency medicine, and psychiatry) along with her passion for innovation, entrepreneurship, and improving clinical outcomes. Prior to joining CBI, she served as Director of Academic and Professional Relations at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and was founder and CEO of a boutique entrepreneurial venture (MD IntelliNet) launched with seed funding from Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. She held faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School (Internal Medicine and Psychiatry), Brown University (Internal Medicine), and served as an attending physician in the Emergency Department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital after receiving her medical degree at the University of Cincinnati.