Sharon Bakalash MD, PhD

Dr. Bakalash is a seasoned Ophthalmic surgeon with more than two decades of demonstrated clinical and scientific leadership in ophthalmic sciences and medicine.  She heads the SB Strategic Development Consultants Group, providing clinical development, strategic planning, search and evaluation, and business development guidance.

Dr. Bakalash had served in various roles of exceeding responsibilities within the pharmaceutical and device industry. In her last role within Novartis, she was responsible for the US early development portfolio in both Ophthalmology and ENT—forming development strategies, enabling pipeline enrichment stemming from both external and internal innovation.  Prior to that, she headed the Search and Evaluation organization within business development at Alcon, where she was tasked with evaluating, negotiating and overseeing numerous licensing transactions- spanning acquisitions, joint ventures and a wide variety of co- development frameworks.

Prior to Novartis, Dr. Bakalash was a part of the Office of Technology Development (http://otd.harvard.edu/) at the Harvard Medical School, where she was charged with identifying, commercializing and out-licensing innovations. Through the years, as an active scientist and a physician, Sharon had consulted to biotech device and Pharma companies, and conducted pre-clinical and clinical research.

Dr. Bakalash holds an MD from Ben Gurion University, a PhD in Neuroimmunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and a Business degree from Northeastern University.  Dr. Bakalash has also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Eye research institute at Harvard University, where the focus of her research was on stem cell involvement in neuronal degeneration.