Ramachandra G. Naik, MD

Ramachandra G. Naik, MD, is a clinical professor of medicine and the Director, Diabetes Clinical Research, in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He joined NYU Langone Health in 2023 with over three decades of wealth of global experience in patient care, clinical research, teaching, and global drug development, with demonstrated clinical, strategic business, and executive leadership skills.

Dr. Naik did his endocrinology fellowship and board certifications (D.M., Endocrinology and Diplomate of the National Boards, Endocrinology) from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, and later pursued an additional fellowship program at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He was a recipient of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation post-doctoral fellowship award at the University of Washington, where he worked under the mentorship of Dr. Jerry Palmer, on elucidating pathophysiology of latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. 

Dr. Naik spent more than a decade of his professional career, as an endocrinologist and clinical investigator, at Bombay Hospital, a nationally renowned tertiary care medical center in Mumbai, India. He relocated to the United States in 2007 to join as an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes at the University of Colorado Denver, where he was involved in patient care and clinical research in type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Naik transitioned into biopharmaceutical industry in 2009 and spent the next eight years in roles of progressively increasing responsibility, providing clinical leadership in global drug development (proof-of-concept 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 scientific and 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). He chaired and ran the scientific advisory committees and provided expertise for several in-licensing opportunities.

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 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.

While pursuing an industry career, he served as an adjunct associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and performed patient care activities in Medicine/Cardiology Service at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, reestablishing and running a Lipid Clinic for 6 years. Dr. Naik returned to a fulltime academic position in February 2018, as a professor of medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University; subsequently, he served as a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

He served as an Assistant Dean and Director for Clinical and Translational Research Programs at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY. In this University-wide role, he led external academic collaboration and partnership initiatives, and junior faculty mentorship program in leadership and career development. Of note, working closely with the Dean and the President of SUNY Upstate Medical University, he successfully drove the initiative of establishing “Transcampus Collaboration” between SUNY Upstate and Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), Germany, that included establishing research partnerships and medical student/staff exchange programs between two institutes. He served on the Department of Medicine Appointments & Promotions Committee at SUNY Upstate. Subsequently, as the Director of Diabetes Clinical Innovation at the University of Washington Medicine Diabetes Institute, Seattle, WA, he provided leadership to the growth of clinical diabetes research, with focus on activities related to industry and technology partnerships.

Dr. Naik has worked as an independent clinical development consultant as well, at Kinexum, LLC, a drug development consulting firm. He has provided clinical development expertise in diabetes (biologics and small molecules) to early and clinical stage biopharmaceutical companies, including putting together clinical development plans, FDA End-of-Phase 2 meeting documents, phase 3 protocols and regulatory briefing documents, participating in FDA meetings, and providing specific medical monitoring services.

Dr. Naik has been an active member of the American Diabetes Association (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,” 6th ed., and “Therapy for Diabetes Mellitus and Related Disorders,” 5th ed., American Diabetes Association), and has given invited talks at national and international meetings.