Ramachandra (Ram) G. Naik, MD

Ramachandra (Ram) G. Naik, MD, is a US board-certified endocrinologist. He brings wealth of global institutional experience in patient care and clinical research, and in drug and device development and medical affairs in the biopharmaceutical industry, with demonstrated clinical, strategic business, and executive leadership skills. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and an Attending Physician at the UW Medical Center, Seattle, WA. He also serves as the Director of Diabetes Clinical Innovation at the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute.

Over the last three decades of his professional career and prior to joining UW in December 2019, Dr. Naik held faculty appointments at Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre in Mumbai, India (Senior Consultant Endocrinologist, 1994-2007), Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes at University of Colorado Denver (Assistant Professor of Medicine & Pediatrics, 2007-2009), University of Pennsylvania (Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine, 2012-2018), and most recently at SUNY Upstate Medical University (as a Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Clinical and Translational Research programs, 2018-2019). His primary areas of clinical research interest have been autoimmune diabetes, immune interventions in T1D, newer therapeutics in T1D and T2D, and diabetes & technology intersection.

Dr. Naik spent 8 years (2009-2017) in the pharmaceutical industry, in roles of progressively increasing responsibility, providing clinical and executive leadership in global drug development (PoC through phase 3) and device development. Initially, as a Director in Global Cardiovascular Metabolism Franchise at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, he provided clinical leadership to late-stage development programs in diabetes and lipid disorders, was involved in business development and licensing activities, and worked closely with the translational medicine team on early development projects. He drove the initiative of establishing the Novartis “Metabolism Center of Excellence” in Hyderabad, India. Later, as a Therapeutic Area Clinical Director at Merck Research Laboratories, Dr. Naik provided strategic clinical leadership to multiple, global development programs from proof-of-concept through phase 3 registrational studies in diabetes and reproductive endocrinology. He was a core member of the Joint Development Committees of the co-development programs involving external partners (Pfizer and Samsung Bioepis). Subsequently, Dr. Naik worked at Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Companies as the Senior Medical Director of Worldwide Clinical Affairs, with a focus on businesses across three distinct J&J companies providing direct leadership to insulin delivery platform (hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery program and patch insulin delivery system). In addition to providing strategic leadership to regulatory clinical studies for class II and class III devices, he designed and executed real world evidence generation studies, and provided clinical leadership for payer interactions, including value-based contracting, clinical support to digital platform, and franchise medical affairs leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dr. Naik has been an active member of several professional societies, including the ADA and the Endocrine Society. He has served on the Research Grant Review Committee of the ADA. He was a recipient of 2014 Global Corporate Award in “Healthcare and Global Impact.” Dr. Naik has published in the area of autoimmune diabetes, has authored chapters in international textbooks on diabetes (including “Ellenberg & Rifkin’s Diabetes Mellitus,” 6^th ed., and “Therapy for Diabetes Mellitus and Related Disorders,” 5th ed., American Diabetes Association), and has given invited talks at national and international meetings. He was on the Advisory Boards of several pharmaceutical companies in India and the US prior to joining the biopharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Naik completed his post-doctoral training in endocrinology, initially, at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, and later, at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He was a recipient of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award at the University of Washington. Later, Dr. Naik also pursued an executive business education from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.