Naj Sharif, BSc (Jnt Hons), PhD, DSc, FARVO, FBPhS

Najam (Naj) Sharif, PhD, DSc (Southampton University, UK) has >34-years’ pharmaceutical drug discovery research/development experience covering neuroscience and ophthalmology. His 22-year tenure at Alcon-Novartis resulted in his contributions to the discovery, characterization, development and US FDA approvals of Patanol®/Pataday®/Pazeo® and Emadine® to treat allergic conjunctivitis, and Travatan® and Simbrinza® for the treatment of ocular hypertension / Glaucoma. Currently, he is Vice President, Global Alliances and External Research, Ophthalmology Innovation Center at Santen Inc USA. Dr. Sharif serves many learned Societies (e.g. ISER, elected Trustee of AOPT & Gold Fellow; Gold Fellow of ARVO, and Fellow of British Pharmacological Society (BPS)), Foundations (e.g. The Glaucoma Foundation), and scientific journals. He is the recipient of several honors: the inaugural “Dr. Roger Vogel Award” for ocular pharmaceutical research (ARVO Foundation, 2014), the “Sir James Black Award” for contributions to drug discovery (BPS, 2017), and the “Ernst H. Barany Prize” for outstanding contributions to ocular pharmacology (ISER; 2020). Dr. Sharif is an Adjunct Professor and Graduate Faculty at multiple Universities worldwide where he has advised and supervised MS- and PhD-candidates. Dr. Sharif has published >220 scientific articles, edited 3 books, and holds 24 issued US/EU patents.

Research Interests: Ocular Pharmacology; Drug Discovery; Ophthalmic Diseases; Neurological Diseases.