Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL) has appointed Dr. Somesh Sharma as the Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Sharma was the Senior Vice President of Monoclonal Antibody and Vaccine Unit at Anosys Inc, USA. He, after completing M.Sc. in Chemistry, left for the U.S. for advanced studies in 1967 and obtained another MS in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Maryland School in Medicine. He did postdoctoral work at Harvard and Standard Medical Schools and then spent eight years doing academic research in immunology and infectious diseases. After spending a year at Applied Immunescineces as Director of Immunology, Dr. Sharma co-founded Anergen and was its Vice President-Research, and Chief Scientific Officer from 1988 to 1994.

Ajay Piramal, Chairman, NPIL, said, "The induction of Dr. Somesh Sharma whose experience of over three decades in Pharma R&D and his knowledge and understanding of Intellectual Property Rights, will substantially strengthen our R&D efforts to achieve our vision of "evolving from licensing to globally launching our patented products."

Dr. Sharma was President, Chief Executive Officer, and sole proprietor of Wizard Laboratories from 1996 to 1997 and of S2 Pharmaceuticals from 1994 to 1996. He co-founded another company, Calyx Therapeutics Inc in 1997 and was its president and CEO from inception until May 2001 and CSO and Executive Vice President from May 2001 until his recruitment to Anosys Inc in February 2002.