Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Friday, June 20, 2025
    961
    Instagram Facebook LinkedIn TikTok
    • Breaking News
    • Guides
    • Food & Drink
    • Listicles
    • Join the Team
    • Whatsapp
      • 961
      • 961 News
    • AUB Outdoors ☀️
    Advertise with Us Get the App
    961
    Home»News»Health & Science
    MediaMax
    3 Mins Read

    Meet The Lebanese-Armenian Chairman Behind The Vaccine Company With 94% Effectiveness

    By Rim ZreinNovember 18, 2020Updated:May 28, 2022
    Facebook WhatsApp Copy Link

    Noubar Afeyan is the Lebanese-Armenian chairman of Moderna Therapeutics, a company whose COVID-19 vaccine has shown a 94% effectiveness in advanced stages of research.

    Noubar Afeyan, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, inventor, technologist, and CEO was born to Lebanese-Armenian parents in Lebanon. He’s a third-generation immigrant to Lebanon as his grandfather fled the Armenian genocide and came to Lebanon in the early 1900s.

    Noubar was born and raised in Beirut, where he lived until reaching the age of 13. He recounts his fond memories of living in Lebanon in details during an interview on MTV’s Sar el Wa2et show with Marcel Ghanem.

    His father was Armenian from Bulgaria who had moved to Lebanon to escape communism. His Lebanese-born mother couldn’t pass on the Lebanese citizenship due to citizenship laws that still exist today preventing Lebanese mothers married to non-Lebanese spouses from passing on citizenship.

    He family moved to Montreal, Canada in 1976. The entrepreneur attended McGill University and graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering in 1983.

    Lane Turner/Globe Staff – Boston Globe

    Noubar was accepted to a Ph.D. program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), at the time the only school with an advanced program in biochemical engineering.

    After earning his Ph.D. in 1987 at the age of 24, Afeyan started his first company. “I was naïve to think I could start a company with so little experience,” he told Forbes in an interview.

    However, it worked out.

    For 10 years, Noubar Afeyan headed PerSeptive Biosystems, which became the number two company in the bio-instrumentation field before it was acquired by Perkin Elmer/Applera Corporation in 1998.

    In 1999, Afeyan founded Flagship Ventures, which develops new companies through its in-house division “VentureLabs” and also invests in startups.

    Afeyan overseas VentureLabs as Senior Managing Partner and CEO of Flagship Ventures. The company has a unique approach in that it conducts its own research and forms new companies after the research has started to bear fruit.

    Using this approach, Flagship Ventures and VentureLabs have launched dozens of startup companies, primarily in the life sciences and sustainability industry.

    “We spend a lot of time at Flagship Ventures identifying problems and coming up with solutions that produce intellectual property that can be used to create innovations and ultimately new approaches and new companies,” Afeyan told Forbes.

    Moderna Therapeutics, which Noubar co-founded and helped lead as chairman, might be Flagship Ventures’ most successful startup. Founded in 2009, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is already valued at $3 billion and employs over 300 people.

    Not just that, the drugmaker Moderna announced that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective, competing with Pfizer as a front-runner in the global race to contain a raging pandemic that has killed so far 1.2 million people worldwide.

    Afeyan has authored numerous scientific publications and patents. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, and several advisory boards, including the World Economic Forum’s Emerging Technology Council, MIT’s Whitehead Institute, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), and the Boston University Medical School.

    Interestingly enough, Afeyan believes that being an immigrant and an entrepreneur are complementary. “What keeps you from innovating is being comfortable,” he told Forbes. “If you’re an immigrant, then you’re used to being out of your comfort zone.”

    Now, he has helped build 38 companies and is the leading man behind a company that might save the world from a deadly pandemic.

    Coronavirus (COVID-19) Lebanese-Armenian
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email

    For You

    nada koussa miss world miss lebanon 961

    Nada Koussa Just Left To Represent Lebanon At Miss World

    massad boulos

    Massad Boulos Was Just Appointed By Trump As Senior Advisor for Middle Eastern Affairs

    30 under 30

    Meet The 20 Lebanese Who Made It On Forbes’ 30 Under 30

    donald trump 961

    Donald Trump Just Won The US Presidential Elections

    Donate to Lebanese Charities

    You Can Now Donate to Lebanese Charities Without Any Fees At All – Here’s How

    Mentally Strong During War

    We Asked Miss Lebanon Nada Koussa How You Can Stay Mentally Strong During War – Here’s What She Told Us

    Low-Cost Lebanese Airline 961

    We Might Finally Be Getting A Low-Cost Lebanese Airline – Here’s What We Know

    lebanon jounieh cyprus by ferry 961

    You’ll Soon Be Able To Travel Between Lebanon & Cyprus By Ferry

    June 8, 2025
    whish pay lebanon 961

    You Can Now Use Whish Pay At Shopify Stores

    June 13, 2025
    Michel Hayek

    Michel Hayek 2025: Predictions For The World

    December 31, 2024
    lebanon cybergames 2025 hacking 961

    Lebanon Just Won A Global Hacking Competition

    June 10, 2025
    Michel Hayek

    Michel Hayek 2025: Predictions For Lebanon

    December 31, 2024

    20 Celebrities You Probably Didn’t Know Had Lebanese Roots

    April 22, 2019
    Michel Hayek

    Michel Hayek 2025: Predictions For The Middle East

    December 31, 2024
    lebanese beer brands almaza beirut beer 961

    Lebanese Beer Brands Are Publicly Throwing Shade, And It’s Getting Frothy

    June 7, 2025

    Ampere Cinema Reopens Its Doors In North Lebanon After 28 Years Of Absence

    June 30, 2022
    961 Logo
    Facebook WhatsApp TikTok Instagram

    Popular Topics

    • Guides
    • Eat & Drink
    • Listicles
    • Lebanon News
    • Diaspora
    • Explained

    961

    • About
    • WhatsApp Channel
    • News WhatsApp Channel
    • Corrections Policy
    • Ownership & Funding

    Services

    • Advertise
    • Careers
    • App Waitlist
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    961™ | All Rights Reserved ©2025
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Okay