Opko Health said this week that it has appointed Naveed Shams as its chief medical officer and senior vice president of research and development.
Before joining Opko, Shams worked at Genentech where he oversaw development of that company’s wet age-related macular degeneration drug Lucentis. Opko is developing its own AMD treatment, an RNAi drug called bevasiranib, which is under phase III development (see RNAi News, 9/6/2007).
Shams holds an MD from Dow Medical College in Pakistan and a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of South Carolina.