Skip to content

Former Sudbury med research boss resurfaces in Cambridge, Mass.

Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma gets new job in Cambridge, Mass.
031212_JM_Research_Institute660
Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, the former CEO of Sudbury’s Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC), has been appointed chief medical officer of VBI Vaccines (VBI) in Cambridge, Mass. File photo.

Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, the former CEO of Sudbury’s Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC), has been appointed chief medical officer of VBI Vaccines (VBI) in Cambridge, Mass.

Diaz-Mitoma will oversee clinical development initiatives at VBI, originally called Variation Biotechnologies, the company he co-founded in 2001.

Last November, Diaz-Mitoma abruptly resigned from his position at AMRIC, the research arm of Health Sciences North. Hospital officials did not comment on his departure at the time, saying only it was a personal matter.

Soon after Diaz Mitoma’s departure, AMRIC was rebranded as the Health Sciences North Research Institute with a renewed focus on health issues that affect northerners.

"We're excited to welcome Dr. Diaz-Mitoma back to VBI as a key addition to our management team," said Jeff Baxter, VBI's president-CEO in a July 25 statement.

"Francisco brings significant immunology, vaccine development, and hepatitis B experience. His appointment, and other new recent hires, greatly increases VBI's clinical development capability as we progress late stage clinical development plans for Sci-B-Vac, our hepatitis B vaccine, in Europe and North America, as well as other vaccine candidates in our pipeline."

VBI is headquartered in Cambridge with research operations in Ottawa and manufacturing facilities in Israel. 

Diaz-Mitoma was a professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine for five years before heading up AMRIC for four years beginning in 2011.

Prior to joining NOSM, Diaz-Mitoma was a professor of pediatrics, pathology, laboratory medicine, and microbiology at the University of Ottawa. He founded the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Centre at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

In 2001, he co-founded Variation Biotechnologies (now VBI) and served as its CEO until September 2009. He has continued to stay involved at VBI as an independent medical consultant. 

Diaz-Mitoma received his medical degree from the University of Guadalajara, completed fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba, and earned a Ph.D. in Virology from the University of Alberta.
 


Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.