Good Decision

Dr. John Vahle
Lorraine J. Hoffman Graduate Alumni Award
PhD ’96

Dr. John Vahle envisioned spending his career at a veterinary college.

There he would balance his duties between research, teaching and diagnostic service.

Instead Vahle moved from practicing large animal medicine into the pharmaceutical industry after graduating with his PhD from Iowa State and a DVM from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“It was a very difficult decision at the time,” Vahle said. “However, Iowa State has a strong track record of pathologists excelling in the pharmaceutical industry and one of those individuals convinced me to join Lilly.”

It’s turned out to be a very good decision for Vahle. He has been with Eli Lilly and Company for the past 30 years. Today he is a senior research fellow and vice president of toxicology and pathology with Lilly Research Laboratories.

“At the time Lilly had an animal health group and for the first few years I enjoyed supporting several of their swine disease projects,” Vahle said. “As my career progressed, I was increasingly focused on human pharmaceutical research and have not worked directly in animal health for years.”

Throughout his career, Vahle has maintained a strong focus on data-driven decision-making, consistently grounding his perspective in scientific evidence.

He has played a pivotal role in the safety assessment of pharmaceuticals that have reached the market and become important treatment options for patients. Most notably, his contributions have helped bring new therapies for osteoporosis and diabetes.

It’s a career path he’s glad he’s taken.

“I’m fortunate to work with stellar scientists across a wide range of disciplines,” he said. “As a veterinary pathologist, I particularly find it satisfying to work with physician scientists as we have similar biomedical training and speak a common language.”

While at Lilly Vahle has constantly worked on new drug targets and drug modalities. He says toxicologic pathologists are often the first to detect and describe a unique toxicity that may not have been previously described.

In particularly he has worked on programs where his work in toxicologic pathology has directly contributed to medicines being developed.

One project in particular stands out.

“The medicine in that project was eventually prescribed for the mother of my primary biology partner on the program as well as my own aunt,” Vahle said. “Having friends and family directly benefit from your work is immensely satisfying.”

Beyond his scientific contributions, Vahle has held leadership positions in nearly every major professional organization related to pathology and toxicology. His leadership in an international regulatory initiative led to the development of an alternative approach to carcinogenicity risk assessment that has significantly reduced the number of animals required for safety testing.

Vahle says his external commitments fall into two groups. He focused his energies on giving back and helping key professional societies accomplish goals around advocacy and training future generations of toxicologists and pathologists.

His other activities are centered on working with industry scientists, academicians, and regulators to improve laboratory testing paradigms.

“Animal use principles of replacement, reduction and refinement are key to me as a veterinarian and much of our work strives to both improve safety testing while also reducing laboratory animal use,” he said.

September 2026