“For the betterment of community”
Mireli Fino’s path to leading MassBiologics
M
ireli Fino grew up in Calvillo, a small town in Aguascalientes in Central Mexico. Her family highly valued giving back to the community, which contributed to her father and his four siblings all becoming doctors. It’s also why Fino’s professional life has centered on the development of vaccines that improve the lives of millions of people. And ultimately, it’s what led her, after a 30-year career in pharmaceutical manufacturing, to the role of executive vice chancellor for MassBiologics of UMass Chan Medical School in July. “My dad was one of just a few doctors in our small town,” said Fino. “Growing up, both he and my grandfather taught us it was a responsibility to do something with your life for the betterment of community, something that would contribute to the greater
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public good. That certainty, that you should always give back, has guided me throughout my career. MassBiologics’ mission to improve health on a global scale is what drew me here.” In addition to being a town physician, Fino’s father was an organizer in their community, helping local farmers pool resources to pay for a well-water system that allowed them to begin growing cash crops. The extra money brought in from these new crops significantly improved the lives of many local families. “My dad is really an entrepreneur,” said Fino. “I’d go with him to these massive drilling sites, with all these big machines, and I was fascinated. I was mesmerized by all the huge, complex engines.” In some ways, Fino turned her father’s interest in farming into a career. “When I went off to college,
I knew I wanted to do something on a large scale with my life that involved those big projects. I wanted to help more than one patient at a time. I wanted to do something big. But I also wanted to be in the public sector, giving back to and improving people’s lives.” Armed with a degree in biochemical engineering, Fino has spent most of her career doing just that: working out the intricacies of manufacturing large volumes of vaccines so millions of people could receive lifesaving medicines. The first product Fino worked on at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and later Pfizer, Inc., was a pneumococcal vaccine for children that protects against 13 different serotypes of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. In 2005, the World Health Organization estimated that pneumococcal infections were responsible for the death of 1.6 million children worldwide.
