As the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) readies to announce, in December 2018, the next recipient of the Sir James Black Award, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics congratulates current recipient, Naj Sharif, PhD, for his achievements.

Dr. Sharif is the Executive Director at Santen, Inc. He received the Sir James Black Award from BPS in December 2017 for his contributions to drug discovery. He has been in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 31 years, holding leadership positions spanning discovery research, drug development and regulatory affairs.

 His 22-year tenure at Alcon resulted in his contributions to the discovery, development, and U.S. FDA approvals of many drugs -- Travatan®, Patanol®,  Emedine®, Simbrinza®, Izba® and Pazeo®  -- to treat glaucoma/ocular hypertension, and ocular allergies.

He was recently co-responsible for acquiring Innfocus, Inc. for Santen, and has thus helped add a device for glaucoma treatment to the product pipeline of Santen.

He was recently elected as a Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (FARVO), and a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (FBPhS).

Dr. Sharif has been a member of ASPET since 2010, and is a member of the Divisions for Drug Discovery and Development, Molecular Pharmacology, Neuropharmacology, and Translational and Clinical Pharmacology.