Amgen has appointed Michael Severino, senior vice president, global development and corporate chief medical officer, with immediate effect.  Severino, formerly vice president, global development at Amgen, will replace Sean Harper. Harper was appointed Amgen's executive vice president, research and development.

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

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. In 2006, Severino assumed leadership of the inflammation therapeutic area in global clinical development and was promoted in 2007 to vice president, global development.