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New Amsterdam Pharma is committed to excellence in clinical research and strives to create a safe and motivating environment for all patients who agree to participate in the PREVAIL study. With this in mind, we have assembled a world-class advisory panel of academic clinician scientists with expertise in preventive cardiology, population data science, and public health. Their established research leadership and intellectual support will contribute hugely to our goal of determining whether obicetrapib can provide the breakthrough in reducing the risk of adverse events associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Professor Stephen Nicholls, M.D., is a world-renowned cardiologist. He is Director of Monash Heart, Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Victorian Heart Institute at Monash University. He leads the Victorian Heart Hospital project, due to open at Monash University's Clayton campus in 2022.
A multiple-award winner, Professor Nicholls has written more than 1000 manuscripts, book chapters and conference proceedings, and has raised more than $160 million in research funding.
Professor Nicholls’ research broadly focuses on developing new strategies to reduce the risk of heart disease, involving translational research spanning preclinical studies, use of imaging to study coronary atherosclerosis and leadership of seminal clinical trials of numerous development programs targeting cardiometabolic risk.
Christie Ballantyne, M.D.,is an internationally-renowned expert on lipids, atherosclerosis and heart disease prevention. His research interest in the prevention of heart disease has led him to become an established investigator for the AHA and to receive continuous funding from the NIH since in 1988 in basic research of leukocyte-endothelial interactions, translational research in biomarkers and clinical trials.
His many accomplishments have included being elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. In 2012 he received the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Scientist Award (Basic Domain). In 2014 and 2015, Thomson Reuters recognized Christie as one of “The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds.” Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science, named Dr. Ballantyne as a “Highly Cited Researcher” 2017-2020 in the top 1% of researchers most cited. In 2019, Dr. Ballantyne was awarded the Baylor College of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award. His research in biomarkers has led to the FDA approval of 2 biomarkers for risk prediction of CV and he has played a prominent role in the development and FDA approval of new therapies for treatment of lipids.
With over 800 publications in the area of atherosclerosis, lipids and inflammation, Christie also serves on the Editorial Board for Circulation. Christie is the Chief of Cardiology and the Chief of Cardiovascular Research at Baylor College of Medicine. He is currently the Director for Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention at Baylor College of Medicine.
He received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine with internal medicine residency at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and an AHA fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Institute for Molecular Genetics at Baylor.
Brian Ference, M.D., is a cardiologist and genetic epidemiologist who was educated and trained at Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
He graduated from Yale Medical School and trained as a clinical investigator resident in Internal Medicine and as a special student in clinical epidemiology and genetic epidemiology as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale. He then trained in cardiology and interventional cardiology at Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard, he also completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard School of Public Health, and was an NHLBI Cardiovascular (Genetic) Epidemiology Fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He then earned a business degree from the University of Cambridge, and a degree in evidence-based medicine with a focus on clinical trial design from the University of Oxford.
He is currently Director of Research (Professor) in Translational Therapeutics, and Executive Director of the Centre for Naturally Randomized Trials at the University of Cambridge, UK; and Visiting Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Milan, Italy. Prior to his current post in Cambridge, his previous positions included Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Genomic Research Centre at Wayne State University School of Medicine in the US; Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for a public-private collaboration working on the Chinese Precision Medicine Initiative in Beijing; and CEO of a biotechnology company. His research focuses on using Mendelian randomization to design ‘naturally randomized trials’ to generate naturally randomized evidence that can be used to improve the drug discovery and development process; inform the optimal design of randomized trials; fill evidence gaps when a randomized trial is not possible or practical; and define the practice of precision cardiovascular medicine.
Ann Marie Navar, M.D., Ph.D., is a preventive cardiologist and an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her research focuses on optimizing strategies for cardiovascular risk reduction including prospective registries, real-world data, and prospective clinical trials. She is the Deputy Editor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at JAMA-Cardiology, and a board member of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology.
Steven E. Nissen, M.D., M.A.C.C, is Chief Academic Officer for the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. From 2006 to 2019, he served as Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. In 2006-2007 he served as President of the American College of Cardiology.
He has served as Study Chairman for large global cardiovascular outcomes trials, most studying lipid modifying therapies. His contributions to scientific literature include approximately 600 journal articles and 60 book chapters.
In 2007, Time Magazine selected Dr. Nissen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Beginning in 2015, he was named by Thompson-Reuters as one of the world’s most highly cited physician-scientists.
Kausik Ray, M.D., is the Professor of Public Health in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial College London, as well as the Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Imperial College NHS Trust.
Professor Ray is currently President of the European Atherosclerosis Society, Chair of the World Heart Federation Cholesterol Roadmap 2021-2022, Chair for Global Council for Heart Health. National Lead for CVD NIHR Academic research Collaboration, Clinical Director for Research HDR UK Digital Innovation Hub DISCOVER Now.
He received his medical education (MB ChB, 1991) at the University of Birmingham Medical School, his M.D. (2004) at the University of Sheffield, a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and finally an MPhil in epidemiology (2007) from the University of Cambridge. His research involves lipids, diabetes and population health serving as global lead for trials and registries. He has >100,000 citations and since 2018 has been recognised annually by Clarivate Analytics as among the top 0.1% of authors in global medicine.
He led the international development program for Inclisiran, the first siRNA-based therapy for cholesterol-lowering approved globally, in addition to playing a key role in the development program of Bempedoic Acid and PCSK9 monoclonal antibodies. He initiated the Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Studies Collaboration (FHSC), the only global registry of FH, as well as multi-national European registries such as Da Vinci, Heymans and Santorini, all of which are helping to shape global health policy.