Amgen promotes Michael Severino to chief medical officer

Michael Severino has been promoted to the dual role of senior VP, global development and corporate chief medical officer at Amgen.

The former VP of global development, Severino will take over from Sean Harper who has been appointed executive VP, R&D at the US biotech.

Harper's appointment was announced in December, 2011, at the same time as CEO Kevin Sharer declared his intention to step down this May.

Severino has spent eight years at Amgen, where he also served as senior director of inflammation early development and head of the company's proof-of-concept group within medical sciences.

His previous experience includes several years at Merck Research Laboratories working across a wide range of therapeutic areas including vaccines, oncology, diabetes and neurosciences.

"Since joining Amgen in 2004, Mike has demonstrated leadership across Amgen's global development organisation and has made significant contributions to the overall advancement of Amgen's pipeline," said Harper.

"Mike brings broad experience and immense expertise to his new role and I am confident that under his leadership, Amgen's global development team will continue to deliver important new medicines for patients with serious illnesses."

Harper joined Amgen in 2002 as vice president of development, and during his time at the company established its medical sciences capability to focus on translational medicine research.

Like Severino, he also has previous experience at Merck Research Laboratories. He is also a member of the PhRMA Regulatory Affairs Coordinating Committee.