AHPA hires chief science officer

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) announced that Maged Sharaf, Ph.D., has joined AHPA as its new chief science officer.

Prior to joining AHPA, Dr. Sharaf spent 15 years with the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) in several capacities including director herbal medicine standards, department of foods, dietary supplements and herbal medicines; principal scientific liaison and senior scientific liaison (botanicals), department of standards development; manager analytical services and scientist, verification programs; coordinator, quality control laboratory; and chemist IV-project leader, research and development laboratory.

While at USP, Dr. Sharaf co-developed the Dietary Supplements Compendium, a resource of public standards and guidelines for the dietary supplement industry worldwide. He also developed botanical standards for inclusion in the United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary (USP-NF) and participated in building and implementing the Dietary Supplement Verification Program (a public health program) and the Dietary Ingredient Verification Program (a program for the dietary supplement industry).

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Sharaf to AHPA." said AHPA President Michael McGuffin. "His extensive experience and knowledge will be a valuable asset to AHPA and its members, and will have a positive impact on the herbal products industry."

"I am excited to join AHPA and I look forward to working with the botanical industry to promote AHPA's mission to support the responsible commerce of herbal products," said Dr. Sharaf.

Before USP, Dr. Sharaf taught undergraduate and graduate courses in pharmacognosy, pharmaceutical sciences, and instrumentations. He has preceding experience conducting bioanalytical assay development and validation, and human bioequivalence studies in support of the pharmaceutical industry; quality control testing of finished dosage forms; dosage forms manufacturing; and retail pharmacy.

Dr. Sharaf earned his Ph.D., in pharmacognosy from the School of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh; a master of sciences in pharmacognosy from Al-Azhar University, Egypt; and a bachelor in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences from Cairo University, Egypt.

Dr. Sharaf co-authored several scientific publications, is an invited speaker, and a reviewer for a number of scientific journals. He is a member of the Egyptian Association of Pharmacists, American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP), ASP Constitution and By-Laws Committee, American Chemical Society, and Washington Chromatography Discussion Group. He is a council member of the Specialty Committee of Traditional Chinese Medicines-Pharmaceutical Analysis, World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, and a founding and advisory board member of the International Association for the Advancement of High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography.

Dr. Sharaf replaces Steven Dentali, Ph.D., who is now vice president of botanical sciences at Herbalife. Dr. Sharaf can be reached at [email protected] or 301.588.1171 ext. 103.