Udo J. Vetter studied clinical pharmacy at the University of Seattle. After university, he worked for five years as a pharmacist at the pharma firm Schering-Plough Corp. (Now Merck & Co. Inc.), and set up production facilities in Puerto Rico. Subsequently, he was, among other things, Vice President for licensing and production at Martec Inc., and President of Vetter Pharma-Turm Inc. Since 1987, he holds various senior management positions at Vetter. Moreover, Udo J. Vetter is chairman of the board of the Vetter Pharma since 2008. He is the chairman of Isotope Technologies Munich SE (ITM) and board member of Gland in India.

In 2003, he established the investment company UV-Cap. Udo J. Vetter is a member of the expert association GPMLF of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) and since 2019 he is President of European Family Businesses (EFB).