After obtaining his Medical Doctor degree in Medical Microbiology at the University of Mainz (Germany) in 1992, Michael Lahn was a fellow at the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Freiburg (Germany). In 1996, he joined the Department of Immunology at National Jewish Research and Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, where he was Instructor. During this time he investigated the role of gamma/delta T cells in early immune responses.

In 2000, Michael joined Eli Lilly and Company, where he first worked in the early phase drug development for anti-inflammatory drugs. In 2003 he was member of the first-generation antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) aprinocarsen, a late phase drug development team. After the decision to discontinue this Phase III development, Michael joined Lilly’s early phase oncology development group. He was responsible for the development of several novel oncology drugs, including the second generation ASO LY2181308 and the TGF-beta small molecule inhibitor galunisertib (LY2157299).

In 2014 Michael left Lilly to join AstraZeneca’s NSCLC Phase 3 development team for osimertinib. Here, Michael led the safety review team for the registration of osimertinib. In Fall of 2015, Michael joined Incyte as the Head of Clinical Development, Europe, located in Geneva/Switzerland. He has authored or co-authored over 100 publications.