Ismail Kola, Ph.D. has been appointed senior vice president, discovery research, Schering-Plough Research Institute (SPRI), and the company's chief scientific officer. Dr. Kola reports to Thomas P. Koestler, Ph.D., executive vice president and president, SPRI. Dr. Kola is responsible for a team of 1,000 people at the company's discovery research sites in NJ, CA, MA and Milan, Italy. He will also become a member of the company's Operations Management Team (OMT).

Dr. Kola succeeds Catherine Strader, Ph.D., who has been named senior vice president, science and technology, reporting to Fred Hassan, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. In this new position, she will be involved in the company's external science and technology-centered actions, including business development and licensing.

Dr. Kola joins the company from Merck, where he most recently served as senior vice president and site head, basic research, and was responsible for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, infectious diseases, immunology and rheumatology, animal pharmacology and basic and medicinal chemistry. He also chaired Merck's antibacterial and antifungal worldwide business strategy team. Prior to Merck, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Pharmacia Corp. and also served as a consultant to SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Strader has been with the company since 1995 when she joined as vice president, CNS, cardiovascular and genomics research. She held positions of increasing responsibility and was appointed chief scientific officer in 2006.