Jennifer McCafferty SVP, CMC-Regulatory and Quality
Jennifer McCafferty is Senior Vice President, Head of Regulatory CMC and Quality Assurance at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL). In this role, Jennifer leads the global Regulatory Affairs (RA) CMC and MRL Quality Assurance organizations (900+ employees) while also assuming cross-divisional (R&D and Manufacturing) responsibilities for medical devices combination products, quality management for new pipeline modalities and change control, as a member of Merck’s Research Leadership Team (RLT) and Manufacturing Leadership Team (MLT).
Prior to this role, Jennifer was Vice President, Large Molecule External Manufacturing Operations, leading the company’s global external contract manufacturing (CMO) network to supply the growing vaccines and biologics portfolio of new pipeline and commercial products. Jennifer’s more than 25-year career includes leadership positions across analytical sciences, factory and CMO operations, quality systems, quality control, CMC regulatory, commercialization, business development and manufacturing strategy, as well as enterprise change program assignments across the pharmaceutical, consumer health, vaccines and biologicals business units of Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.
Jennifer serves on the Government Affairs Committee for the Board of Visitors and sits on the Chemistry Department Executive Advisory Board at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she earned her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Colgate University. Jennifer has a passion for employee development and mentoring, serves on The Conference Board’s (TCB) Leadership Council for Advancing Women and was recognized as one of Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) 2023 Luminaries.