Amgen has named Michael Severino, MD, senior vice president, global development and corporate chief medical officer, effective immediately, the company announced. Severino, formerly vice president of global development at Amgen, will replace Sean Harper, MD. Harper was appointed Amgen's executive vice president, research and development.

Severino joined Amgen eight years ago as senior director of inflammation early development. Subsequently, he held the role of head of Amgen's proof-of-concept group within medical sciences, where he was responsible for leading a team of physician-scientists responsible for Amgen's late pre-clinical and early clinical programs across all therapeutic areas. In2006, Severino assumed leadership of the inflammation therapeutic area in global clinical development and was promoted in 2007 to vice president of global development.

Prior to joining Amgen, Severino held positions of increasing responsibility at Merck Research Laboratories.

Severino received his MD degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.