A former psychiatry resident and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine has been appointed Chief Medical Officer at the biotechnology company Galapagos NV.
Walib Abi-Saab, MD, was on the faculty at Yale between 1998-2001. In his new position, he will help drive the overall medical strategy of Galapagos, a clinical-stage biotechnology company specialized in the discovery and development of small molecule medicines with novel modes of action. It is headquartered in Belgium.
Abi-Saab previously worked at Shire Pharmaceuticals, where he held various clinical development leadership roles. Prior to that he led clinical development activities at Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, and Pfizer, addressing a wide range of therapeutic areas and leading teams throughout the clinical development process.
At Yale, Abi-Saab headed the Schizophrenia Research Clinic and the Neuroscience Epilepsy Microdialysis Research Program. He completed his psychiatry residency training and a neuroscience research fellowship at Yale.
His appointment at Galapagos becomes effective March 1.