OREANDA-NEWS. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that Fouad Namouni, M.D., has been appointed Oncology Development Head, effective July 25, 2016. Dr. Namouni will be responsible for leading the execution of a comprehensive development strategy for the company’s robust oncology pipeline from the early development stage through commercialization. He will continue to report to Francis Cuss, MB Bchir, FRCP, executive vice president, chief scientific officer, and remain a member of the R&D Leadership Team. Namouni most recently served as head of Medical, leading the worldwide medical organization and prior to that, was the development lead for Yervoy and Opdivo.

“Fouad has demonstrated highly successful strategic and visionary leadership in oncology and immuno-oncology drug development and medical affairs throughout his career at Bristol-Myers Squibb,” said Cuss. “As a trained pediatric oncologist, Fouad brings to this role exceptional clinical experience and an unwavering commitment to patients. I am confident that our oncology development programs will continue to thrive under his leadership.”

Namouni joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in France in 1999 as life-cycle manager for Taxol and has held positions of increasing responsibility in R&D since. Namouni moved to the U.S. in September 2006 where he became responsible for the development of Erbitux. Before taking his current role as head of Medical, Namouni was the development lead for Opdivo and Yervoy. Earlier in his career, Namouni was a pediatric oncologist at Institut Curie in Paris where his focus was clinical research for the treatment of pediatric tumors. He received his medical degree from the University of Annaba Medical School in Algeria and his Pediatrics degree from Universit? Rene Descartes in Paris, France. He also received his Pediatric Oncology and Hematology degree and M.S. in Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology from Universite Paris-Sud in France.