James Summers

James B. Summers, Ph.D., has more than three decades of drug discovery and pharmaceutical research management experience spanning multiple therapeutic areas. Under his leadership at Abbott Laboratories and at AbbVie, teams have advanced more than 20 compounds into clinical development. He established new research sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Shanghai, China, was an architect of several strategies that defined the future direction of global research organizations, and championed multiple successful licensing deals, biotech collaborations and venture investments. Dr. Summers has held various senior R&D leadership positions where he led efforts focused on the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, pain, and psychiatric disorders. Most recently, he was vice president of neuroscience research at AbbVie. Dr. Summers also served as divisional vice president, advanced technology with Abbott where he was responsible for an organization engaged in a broad range of technologies and core services that enabled and accelerated drug discovery research across all of Abbott’s therapeutic areas and sites. Dr. Summers holds a BS, summa cum laude, in chemistry from Denison University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University.