Helen McDowell

Helen McDowell Head of Government Affairs & Global Public Health, ViiV Healthcare Helen leads global public policy, access to medicine, advocacy and global public health initiatives including public-private partnerships for ViiV Healthcare. Born out of a partnership between GSK and Pfizer in 2009, with Shionogi joining in 2012; ViiV Healthcare is the only pharmaceutical company solely focused on combatting, preventing and ultimately curing HIV/AIDS. Helen has a strong track record of driving and embedding sustainability and corporate responsibility goals within the business. She is also an active member of GSK’s (ViiV’s majority shareholder) Global Health Leadership team and is the current International AIDS Society (IAS) Industry Liaison Forum Industry Co-Chair. Since 1999, Helen has worked in the pharmaceutical sector, gaining experience and expertise across medicine lifecycles as well as in many different business functions. This includes: sales, marketing, R&D, scientific communications, medical affairs, patient advocacy and programmes, public policy and global access to medicines. She has worked in the HIV/AIDS sector for over 15 years. Following graduation from the University of Nottingham (UK) with a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry & Genetics, Helen completed voluntary work in rural Zimbabwe, with the NGO Students Partnership Worldwide (now known as Restless Development). This ignited her passion and interest in global public health generally and HIV more specifically.