2025 Power 100: Jochen Salfeld
Photo I Courtesy of AbbVie
Jochen Salfeld, head of R&D Cures, vice president, virology discovery research at AbbVie
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In his 35 years with AbbVie, Salfeld has been personally involved in growing a small startup in a leased space in Cambridge into a biopharmaceutical powerhouse. Thirty years ago, he was in charge of the team of scientists that invented the blockbuster drug Humira.
In Worcester, AbbVie’s 553,000-square-foot bioresearch center has research and development and manufacturing colleagues working alongside each other. The collaborative environment leads to cross-functional learning, which Salfeld said is important for pharmaceutical development, which involves trial and error and production at scale. Right now, he’s particularly proud of his involvement leading the company’s Pathway to Cures initiative, focused on defining cures for its core therapeutic areas and assessing how they can happen. The idea is to dream big, and move beyond making incremental improvements to curing disease.
AbbVie, headquartered in Illinois, reported global net revenues of $13.3 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared to $12.3 billion for the same period in 2024. The company’s largest revenue driver was its immunology portfolio, generating $6.3 billion, compared to neuroscience ($2.3 billion), oncology ($1.6 billion), and aesthetics ($1.1 billion). Net earnings dipped from $1.4 billion to $1.3 billion in the first quarter as well. And Salfeld remains its man on the ground in Worcester, leading innovation for a company dedicated to making the world healthier.
Laura Finaldi is a former WBJ reporter and current freelance writer.
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