Dr. Leonard P. Ruiz | CureTalks

Leonard P. Ruiz, Ph.D., is the President of the International Medica Foundation (IMF), a non-profit foundation and is also the CEO of Exxell BIO, Inc., a company he helped form to develop an Ebola vaccine licensed from the National Institutes of Health. IMF has recently, successfully completed a 1,000 neonate/infant rotavirus vaccine clinical trial in Ghana, Africa and demonstrated for the first time that a rotavirus vaccine can be efficacious when administered to newborns and neonates establishing the potential to protect infants earlier in life from a life threatening diarrheal disease. Under his leadership, the Foundation has also developed breakthrough technology for eliminating the need for refrigeration (cold chain) for oral vaccines. Dr. Ruiz has over 30 years of domestic and international experience and accomplishments in business development, clinical trial management, technology transfer, and strategic partnering in the vaccine, biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and food industries. Dr. Ruiz is very familiar with pediatric products including the pediatric vaccine market. He is currently a working group member of the U.S. Pediatric Formulations Initiative at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH). During his career Dr. Ruiz has been in leadership roles in both for-profit businesses and non-profit foundations. Dr. Ruiz is considered an expert clinical trials, vaccines (active immunity) and in passive immunity (antibodies) and was one of the founders of Prolacta Bioscience, Inc., (www.prolacta.com) formed to process banked human breast milk to maintain its biological activities for hospitalized premature babies. His international experiences included projects in New Zealand, Malaysia (World Bank), Pakistan (USAID) and Africa. Dr. Ruiz holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Louisiana State University and has completed postgraduate studies in marketing, business development, patent law, an abbreviated M.B.A. curriculum, has been a MENSA member and was an honor graduate of the United States 2nd Army Non-commissioned Officers’ Academy.