Seven influential girls in biotech in 2026

Ladies make up 56% of the life sciences workforce, but the gender parity is skewed as they stay underrepresented at management roles. Whereas limitations to alternatives stay, girls proceed to make a transformative impression in varied fields within the life sciences, biotech, and medtech industries. As we have a good time Worldwide Day of Ladies and Women in Science on February eleventh, let’s take a look at among the most influential girls in biotech and healthcare in 2026. 

Shehnaaz Suliman 

At the moment serving because the chief govt officer (CEO) of ReCode Therapeutics, a Maryland-based biotech that’s designing genetic medicines to deal with genetic issues like cystic fibrosis, Shehnaaz Suliman has been within the enterprise of biotech for greater than two and a half many years.  

Below her management at ReCode, the corporate bagged $29 million final 12 months and has kicked off section 2 trials of the mRNA-based remedy RCT2100, having obtained orphan drug designation from the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) final 12 months. 

She started her profession as a scientific resident in Free State in South Africa. This was following her M.D. from the College of Cape City Medical Faculty in South Africa after which she accomplished each an M.B.A. and an M.Phil. from Oxford College, the place she was a Rhodes Scholar.  

Suliman has worn many hats since. Earlier than becoming a member of ReCode in January 2022, Suliman was president and chief working officer (COO) of California-based Alector, the place she helped scale the immuno-neurology and immuno-oncology firm by capital raises and late-stage pipeline development.  

Previous to Alector, she held senior management roles in company growth and technique at U.S.-headquartered lung illness therapeutics firm Theravance Biopharma and performed key operational and portfolio roles at huge pharmas, equivalent to Genentech, Roche, and Gilead Sciences. And earlier in her profession, she additionally labored in funding banking advising on buy- and sell-side transactions for all times sciences companies.

At current, and on prime of her function at ReCode, she additionally serves on the boards of publicly traded biotech and life science corporations, together with California-based Ultragenyx Prescription drugs and 10x Genomics.   

Widely known for her management and impression, Suliman held a spot on Forbes’ ’50 over 50’ record amongst varied healthcare innovators in 2023. 

Julie Kim 

Set to take the helm of Takeda, Julie Kim’s succession CEO in June 2026 will make her the primary girl in historical past to steer the greater than 240-year-old Japanese pharma big.  

Kim brings almost three many years of healthcare business expertise and a monitor file of strategic management throughout world, regional, and practical roles. Since becoming a member of Takeda in 2019 by the whopping $62 billion acquisition of Adderall developer Shire, she has risen by numerous management positions, together with president of the Plasma-Derived Therapies Enterprise Unit and, president of Takeda’s U.S. Enterprise Unit and U.S. Nation Head since 2022. 

Her expertise within the plasma-derived therapeutics area was a boon throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Antibodies, which are derived from plasma, have been sturdy contenders to beat the virus. Together with different drug builders, Kim helped arrange the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance to develop remedies that battle COVID-19. 

Kim has labored throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S., fostering numerous groups with a shared dedication to patient-centric innovation. She has additionally been lively in group and business management roles, having served on the boards of the Pharmaceutical Analysis and Producers of America (PhRMA) and Croda Worldwide.   

A graduate of Dartmouth School with a B.A. in Economics and the J.L. Kellogg Graduate Faculty of Administration at Northwestern College (MBA), Kim combines enterprise acumen with a deep information of the business. As she prepares to steer Takeda into its subsequent chapter, her focus is on persevering with innovation and deepening affected person impression, amid upcoming organizational modifications in 2026. 

Reshma Kewalramani 

When Reshma Kewalramani turned chief govt of Vertex Prescription drugs in 2020, she took cost of probably the most commercially profitable biotechs. Identified for its breakthrough cystic fibrosis therapies like Trifakta, Vertex had already reworked a once-fatal genetic illness right into a manageable situation for a lot of sufferers. The query going through Kewalramani was not methods to stabilize the enterprise however as a substitute, methods to broaden it. 

Almost six years into her tenure, Kewalramani has made clear that Vertex’s future lies properly past cystic fibrosis. 

A nephrologist by coaching, Kewalramani joined Vertex in 2017 as chief medical officer (CMO) after greater than a decade at Amgen. Her background in scientific growth has formed Vertex’s technique, which was to handle ailments which have a transparent genetic goal and to design therapies that intervene on the root trigger. 

That strategy reached a milestone with the approval of the primary CRISPR-based gene-editing remedy for sickle cell illness and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, which Vertex developed in partnership with CRISPR Therapeutics. The authorization marked a regulatory watershed for gene modifying, albeit going through criticism for being inaccessible to many costing round $300,000 per affected person yearly for a drug like Trifakta. 

However gene modifying is just one piece of the pie. The corporate is advancing a stem cell-derived remedy for kind 1 diabetes, packages concentrating on APOL1-mediated kidney illness, and a just lately authorized non-opioid ache medication representing the primary new mechanistic class in acute ache therapy in additional than 20 years.   

Below Kewalramani’s management, income from Vertex’s cystic fibrosis portfolio continues to fund analysis in high-risk, capital-intensive areas like cell and gene remedy — a luxurious many smaller biotech companies lack. That inside funding capability has allowed Vertex to climate broader sector volatility that has pressured early-stage corporations and tightened capital markets. In the meantime, she was named considered one of TIME Journal’s 100 Most Influential Folks of 2025. 

Though for now, Vertex stays anchored by cystic fibrosis, beneath Kewalramani’s steering, the corporate appears to be reshaping itself right into a broader genetic therapies enterprise. 

Katherine Vega Stultz  

Katherine Vega Stultz at the moment serves as CEO and board director of Wisconsin-based BrainXell, a biotech advancing stem cell-derived regenerative therapies for central nervous system (CNS) issues. Below her management, BrainXell is accelerating its pipeline concentrating on situations equivalent to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s illness, areas the place efficient therapies stay restricted. 

Previous to BrainXell, Stultz was president and CEO of Ocelot Bio, the place she guided the corporate by a $36 million collection A financing and secured U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its lead candidate concentrating on hepatorenal syndrome with acute kidney damage — a uncommon and quickly progressing liver-related situation. She additionally beforehand served as COO of Graphite Bio, serving to scale its gene-editing packages and put together the corporate for public-market development  

Stultz’s profession spans senior roles at Celgene, Eli Lilly, and London-based medical units firm ConvaTec, the place she contributed to the event and commercialization of therapies throughout indications equivalent to blood issues, most cancers, and inflammatory situations. Her management is marked by a give attention to bridging scientific discovery with operational execution to make sure that biotech packages can transfer effectively from early analysis to scientific and industrial milestones. 

Cindy Perettie 

Kite Pharma’s Cindy Perettie is one other within the pharma area to reckon with. When she stepped in as govt vp and world head of Kite, run by pharma big Gilead, in mid‑2023, she took over its cell remedy packages, that are designed to reprogram sufferers’ personal immune cells to battle most cancers. 

Perettie arrived at Kite with greater than 20 years of expertise throughout scientific, industrial, and strategic management roles in world biopharma, together with as CEO of Massacchusetts-based Basis Medication and head of Roche’s Molecular Lab Options, the place she oversaw PCR and sequencing companies. Her appointment got here as Gilead sought to maintain Kite’s momentum, broadening its attain and impression in CAR‑T cell therapeutics. 

On the heart of Perettie’s mandate is increasing entry and innovation in most cancers immunotherapy. As solely a fraction of eligible sufferers at the moment receives CAR T-cell remedy, Perettie has beforehand vowed to convey these healing remedies past main educational facilities into group practices. 

Kite’s flagship therapies — Yescarta and Tecartus — have develop into requirements in treating sure lymphomas and leukemias, providing probably healing one‑time remedies for sufferers with late-stage most cancers.  

On the 2025 American Society of Hematology annual assembly, Perettie highlighted anitocabtagene autoleucel’s efficiency within the clinic. The drug had a 96% total response fee, and Perettie acknowledged that the aim was to “ship a differentiated, one-time therapy choice in 2026 that will cut back affected person burden and enhance entry, together with in outpatient and group oncology settings.” 

Final 12 months was an enormous one for Kite, beneath Perettie’s management. It introduced plans to purchase Pasadena-based Interius BioTherapeutics to convey an in‑vivo CAR‑T platform into its fold. 

Perettie additionally emphasizes operational execution at scale. Lately, Kite has streamlined manufacturing, reaching FDA approval for course of modifications that cut back the median turnaround time for Yescarta from cell assortment to product launch within the U.S., a vital operational enchancment that would enormously impression affected person care. 

Ashley Magargee 

Ashley Magargee, a veteran chief with almost two many years of expertise at Genentech and Roche, assumed the function of CEO of Genentech, two years in the past marking a brand new chapter for the California‑primarily based biotech. 

Magargee had been serving as interim CEO at Roche-owned Genentech since late 2023, entering into the highest publish following the departure of Alexander Hardy to BioMarin. 

A member of Genentech’s Board of Administrators and Roche’s Pharma Management Workforce, she brings many years of cross‑practical expertise spanning industrial portfolio administration, lifecycle technique, market entry, digital engagement, and world operations, together with a stint as basic supervisor for Roche in Singapore and Brunei. 

On the core of her agenda is translating scientific discovery into broadly accessible medicines, notably in oncology.  Magargee has emphasised strengthening Genentech’s commercialization technique to align with its pipeline, which incorporates blood most cancers therapies equivalent to Columvi and Lunsumio, in addition to late‑stage belongings in breast most cancers, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, which is a uncommon life-threatening blood dysfunction, and a number of sclerosis. 

Her management extends past drug launches.  Genentech broke floor on a $700 million manufacturing facility in North Carolina, a serious growth geared toward bolstering home manufacturing capability for metabolic and different novel medicines final 12 months.  

Magargee has known as for integrating applied sciences equivalent to synthetic intelligence (AI) and digital instruments into drug growth and commercialization. She has voiced her help for the function of computational biology and machine‑studying programs in accelerating discovery and enhancing affected person care and in framing know-how that enhances scientific experience somewhat than changing it. 

Yvonne Greenstreet 

Yvonne Greenstreet is guiding Massachusetts-based Alnylam Prescription drugs by a pivotal section as the corporate expands its pioneering work in RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. Since assuming the function of CEO in 2022, Greenstreet has targeted on creating RNAi therapeutics, which is primarily the course of by which sure genes are silenced to behave as a protection towards viruses, that deal with each uncommon and extra prevalent ailments. 

Greenstreet’s joined Alnylam in 2016 as chief working officer, was named president and COO in 2020, which was adopted by her present function as CEO. Below her management, Alnylam has doubled down on its Alnylam P⁵x25 technique because it launched Alnylam 2030 final month, which particulars the American firm’s five-year plan in RNAi therapeutics growth and mapping out funding methods. 

 Earlier than becoming a member of Alnylam, Greenstreet constructed greater than 25 years of business expertise in senior roles at GSK and Pfizer, the place she oversaw medicines growth and company technique at world scale. Her mixture of scientific and industrial experience — she educated as a physician earlier than incomes an MBA — is telling of her function at Alnylam. 

The corporate’s portfolio contains authorized RNAi medicines concentrating on situations equivalent to transthyretin‑mediated amyloidosis. Below Greenstreet’s stewardship, the corporate has nabbed regulatory wins just like the approval of AMVUTTRA, the first RNAi remedy to scale back cardiovascular demise, and fitusiran’s approval for hemophilia A and B final 12 months, placing RNAi squarely on the map as a viable platform for promising medicines. 

Yvonne was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2025 for providers to the biotechnology and life sciences business. She was acknowledged because the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Affiliation Girl of Yr in 2024 for her contributions to healthcare and the development of girls within the office. And this 12 months, she was introduced the Golden Door Award by the Worldwide Institute of New England, highlighting her contributions as an immigrant chief within the U.S. life sciences sector.