Alan Harris joined NPS in January 2008 and is responsible for the company's R&D programs. Before joining NPS, Dr. Harris was therapeutic head of Worldwide Medical Endocrine Care at Pfizer and vice president of global health research and outcomes at Schering-Plough Corp. When previously at Novartis, he oversaw the clinical development of the first somatostatin analog, octreotide, for the treatment of rare tumors of the gut and endocrine system. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Royal Society of Medicine. Dr. Harris was associate professor of medicine at UCLA and holds current academic appointments, including adjunct professor in the department of pharmacology at NYU Medical Center in New York. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles. Dr. Harris received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Strasbourg, France and his Ph.D. in endocrinology from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.