Professor John Skerritt is Enterprise Professor in Health Research Impact at the University of Melbourne, Australia and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health of the University of Sydney, Australia.
He retired as Deputy Secretary of the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care in April 2023, having had line responsibility for over 1200 staff involved in four Australian regulators - regulation of medicines, biologics and devices (as head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration), regulation of gene technology and industrial chemicals and control of drug import, export and production.
He is active on many national and international boards and advisory committees, including advising on the establishment of a mRNA vaccines and medicines industry in Australia. John is also Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the UK-based Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science, and a member of the boards of two major Australian industry associations – Medicines Australia (research-based medicines industry) and AusBiotech (biotechnology).
He has a university medal and PhD and is the author of over 300 publications in many fields and earlier commercialised over a dozen biotechnology products in Australia and internationally.
In a previous role, he was deputy agency head and the most senior scientific leader in Australia’s Foreign Affairs portfolio, and led the negotiation, design and implementation of over $1 billion in collaborative research and development programs between Australia and countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Professor Skerritt was part of the leadership of Australia’s COVID-19 response and one of its public faces undertaking over 100 interviews and media conferences.