Walid Abi-Saab, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Walid Abi-Saab, M.D., joined uniQure as Chief Medical Officer in June 2023. He is responsible for leading clinical research and development, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and program management at uniQure.
Dr. Abi-Saab joins uniQure from the Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company Galapagos, where he served as Chief Medical Officer from 2017 through 2022. While at Galapagos, he expanded the company’s development organization and led the company through a critical and transformative phase, including the successful completion of the Phase 3 studies of filgotinib (Jyseleca®) in rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis. Prior to joining Galapagos, he served as Group Vice President, Global Clinical Development at Shire, where he was responsible for the clinical development plans of all programs in the therapeutic area and oversaw the development of more than 10 marketed products and other programs in rare diseases and specialty pharma. He also has previously held leadership positions at Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, and Pfizer, and served as a resident, research fellow, and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, where he completed Psychiatry residency training and a Neuroscience Research Fellowship.
He obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and his M.D. at the Université Saint Joseph in Beirut.