Ellen Strahlman Appointed Chief Medical Officer at GlaxoSmithKline
PHILADELPHIA, Sept 09, 2008 -- Ellen Strahlman, M.D., M.H.Sc., has been appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at GlaxoSmithKline
Ellen joins GSK from Pfizer Inc. where she was Vice President, Licensing, Worldwide Business Development. During her career, Ellen has worked in a variety of roles including Chief Executive Officer of Virogen Limited, a biotechnology company; Chief Medical Officer and Global Head of R&D for Bausch & Lomb, a pharmaceutical company; and as a senior medical officer for the US government at the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health. She also has worked in leadership roles at Merck and Novartis.
An ophthalmologist, Ellen was appointed this year as the industry representative to the Food and Drug Administration/Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Dermatologic & Ophthalmic Drug Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Columbia University Medical & Science Technology Council and the Board of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry and mathematics from Harvard University. She earned her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she completed her internship in general surgery and residency in ophthalmology. She also has a Master of Heath Sciences' degree in epidemiology and statistics from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.
The Chief Medical Officer is the most senior physician leader of the company with primary responsibility for matters of patient safety, general medical governance, ethics and integrity, medical information, and investigation involving human subjects relating to any GSK products (pharmaceutical, biologicals and consumer healthcare medicinal products) in development or on the market.
"This role unquestionably represents one of the most important physician leadership opportunities within the global biopharmaceutical industry," said GSK R&D Chairman Moncef Slaoui. "The depth of Ellen's medical expertise, her general management and business development experience and proven leadership skills make her ideally suited to take on the challenges of this critical role."
GlaxoSmithKline -- one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies -- is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.