(April 22, 2025) Back in the spring of 2004, Dr. Reshma Kewalramani was hunched over lab results on the transplant ward at Massachusetts General Hospital when her pager buzzed with an unfamiliar extension. A biotech executive was on the line, offering her a role at Amgen – one of the world’s largest independent biopharmaceutical companies – more than 3000 miles away in California. Within weeks, she and her husband packed up their six‑month‑old twins and drove west in a rented minivan, all on the promise of a new start in biotech.
Today, Dr. Reshma Kewalramani is the president and CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the Cambridge‑based biotech whose cystic‑fibrosis drugs and first‑of‑its‑kind CRISPR gene therapy have rewritten medical textbooks. Recently, she was named among the 2025 TIME 100 Most Influential People for “delivering an extraordinary future—because no one’s done it before”.
Reshma Kewalramani
An immigrant’s first chapter
Born in Bombay in 1973, Kewalramani immigrated to Long Island at age 11, settling into a one‑bedroom apartment where academic excellence was family currency. “In my family the career choices were basically engineering, medicine, or priesthood—I chose medicine,” she laughed. Arriving in the U.S. as a pre-teen in the late 1980s, she faced the challenge of adapting to a new country while holding onto big dreams. Kewalramani threw herself into academics with determination. She enrolled in an accelerated program at Boston University, earning both her bachelor’s and medical degrees in seven intense years. By 1998, she had earned her medical degree at a young age, graduating summa cum laude and earning Phi Beta Kappa honors—a clear sign of her talent and hard work.
Those formative years in Boston shaped her profoundly. “I [gained confidence] at BU because it was a nurturing environment. It was a challenging environment. It was a place where you could make a real difference and people gave you the opportunity to do so,” Kewalramani said. Her goal early on was to be a “triple threat” in academic medicine – someone who could conduct research, teach the next generation of doctors, and provide excellent patient care.
While completing her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a nephrology fellowship at the Harvard‑affiliated MGH/Brigham and Women’s program, she began researching transplant science. These experiences sparked her passion for clinical research and showed her how innovation can improve patients’ lives.
From Physician to Pharma Leader
By the early 2000s, Kewalramani found herself at a crossroads. As much as she loved treating patients one-on-one, she realised that the biggest advances in patient care were emerging from the biopharmaceutical industry. “I realised that what inspired me most was seeing the impact of new medicines for patients, and I recognized that the front lines of this work was within the biotech industry. This is why I decided to move from academia to drug development.” In 2004, she took a leap of faith – a move that would define the next chapter of her journey – and left her hospital post for a role at Amgen, a large biotech firm, moving across the country to California with her husband and their young twin boys.
At Amgen, one of the world’s largest biotech firms, Kewalramani spent over twelve years building her expertise in drug development and clinical trials. She rose to become Vice President and Global Head of the Nephrology and Metabolic Therapeutic Area, then served as Vice President and Head of Amgen’s US Medical Organisation. During that time, she oversaw late‑stage clinical trials and worked with regulators to bring new therapies to patients, building a reputation as a physician‑scientist who turns discoveries into real treatments. Although her work in California was going well, she still wanted to make an even bigger difference elsewhere.
At the Helm of Vertex Pharmaceuticals
In 2017, an opportunity drew Kewalramani back to Boston. She joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals – a company renowned for its pioneering work in cystic fibrosis (CF) – as Vice President of clinical development. “Vertex captured my heart and imagination when I saw the opportunity to help create medicines that have a huge impact on people’s lives,” she recounted. It was a natural match: a doctor focused on patients joining a patient‑centered company. Within a year she was chief medical officer; by 2020, president and CEO—the first woman to lead a major U.S. biotech. She inherited a company already famous for cystic‑fibrosis drugs. Under her watch those therapies now reach 90 percent of CF patients worldwide, extending life expectancy by decades.
But the bigger swing came in December 2024, when the FDA approved Casgevy—the first medicine to use CRISPR gene editing—to cure sickle‑cell disease. The milestone, achieved with partner CRISPR Therapeutics, vaulted Vertex into genetic‑medicine history and underpinned TIME’s accolade: “Reshma is the kind of leader who can deliver an extraordinary future—it only seems crazy because no one’s done it before,” wrote Jason Kelly in the list’s citation.
Leading beyond the lab
Kewalramani’s definition of impact extends to mentoring and equity. “I am a physician, executive, immigrant, wife, and mother. All of these roles shape the leader I am,” she told the platform Women Who Win, adding that her philanthropy focuses on closing opportunity gaps in STEM.
Inside Vertex she has broadened internship pipelines and championed Year Up and Bottom Line so that “talent finds a way in, whatever a student’s zip code.”
An Immigrant’s Quest for Impact
She went from a childhood in Mumbai to her teen years on Long Island, and from long hospital shifts to leading a large team of scientists. Her journey wasn’t luck, but a series of thoughtful steps, each guided by the same question she first asked herself in that hospital hallway: “Where can I do the most good?”
Her advice to anyone facing a big decision is simple: “Take risks. Step out of your comfort zone. Live without regrets.”
Nearly forty years after arriving in the U.S., the girl who once flipped through schoolbooks to learn a new language now studies DNA for cures—and in doing so has earned her place among the country’s most influential immigrants.
- Follow Dr Reshma Kewalramani on LinkedIn
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