11 October 2019 - - US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) has hired Merdad Parsey, MD, PhD as chief medical officer, effective November 1, the company said.

Parsey will be responsible for the company's global clinical development and medical affairs organisations.

He will join the company's senior leadership team and will report directly to Daniel O'Day, Gilead's chairman and chief executive officer.

Under a new structure, William Lee, PhD, Gilead's executive vice president, Research will separately report to O'Day.

Parsey joins Gilead from Genentech, Inc., a member of the Roche Group, where he currently holds the position of senior vice president, Early Clinical Development in the Genentech Research and Early Development group.

In this role, he leads clinical development, quality, compliance, informatics and clinical operations functions.

He brings to Gilead significant clinical expertise across a broad array of therapeutic areas, including inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases.

Prior to his most recent tenure with Genentech, Dr. Parsey served as president and CEO of 3-V Biosciences.

He has also held development roles at Sepracor, Regeneron and Merck, Inc. and has served as Assistant Professor of Medicine and director of Critical Care Medicine at New York University School of Medicine.

Parsey completed his MD and PhD at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University and his fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado.

Gilead Sciences is a research-based biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercialises innovative medicines in areas of unmet medical need.

The company strives to transform and simplify care for people with life-threatening illnesses around the world. Gilead has operations in more than 35 countries worldwide, with headquarters in Foster City, California.