Scott D. Berkowitz, MD is a hematologist, clinical coagulation specialist, and vascular disorders clinical research physician. In June 2021 he joined the CPC Clinical Research faculty as a Clinician-Scientist and Research Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Cardiology and Hematology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Dr. Berkowitz earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. He completed an internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Mercy Hospital. He subsequently completed a clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Ohio State University and a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship in Experimental Hemostasis at Scripps Research Institute. He then joined the faculty of SUNY Stony Brook as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, followed by time in clinical practice at the Southern California Permanente and Scripps Clinic Medical Groups in San Diego. In 1993 he joined the faculty of Duke University Medical Center as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medicine (Divisions of Hematology and Cardiology) and Pathology, and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. His time was equally divided between clinical consultation in Coagulation and Hematology at Duke Hospital, and clinical research at DCRI, providing coagulation and hematologic expertise to the Duke Cardiology clinical trials group, participating in the development of novel antithrombotic agents, including applications in arterial and venous disease, and analyzing the complications produced by these agents, such as thrombocytopenia and hemorrhage.
In 2000 Dr. Berkowitz joined the pharmaceutical industry to focus on the clinical development of novel antithrombotic medications. From 2000 to 2006, he was a clinical research physician at AstraZeneca LP on the clinical development of the first oral direct thrombin inhibitor, ximelagatran. He then joined Bayer AG, where from 2006 to 2021 he was a global clinical leader, then Thrombosis Group Head and Vice President of Clinical Development, and then Chief Scientist for Thrombosis and Vascular Diseases, and Distinguished Bayer Science Fellow, retiring in April 2021. During his tenure, he was Lead Physician for the oral direct Factor Xa inhibitor rivaroxaban (Xarelto®) program, overseeing its clinical development and Bayer’s early antithrombotics portfolio. He and his team completed 16 Phase 3 Xarelto® trials, 13 of which met their statistical efficacy endpoint, leading to 8 different health regulatory approved clinical indications worldwide. They successfully completed a full pediatric development program with rivaroxaban, including a 500 pediatric patient Phase 3 clinical trial, the largest ever accomplished in antithrombotic therapy up until that time.
Dr. Berkowitz’s driving research focus has been the pursuit and development of novel antithrombotic alternatives, with the express purpose of obtaining worldwide health regulatory approval, to deliver to healthcare providers new pharmaceutical treatments for patients with venous and arterial thromboembolic disease. In total Dr. Berkowitz has been involved in clinical trials of antithrombotic medications for over 30 years, including LMWHs, oral heparin, argatroban, bivalirudin, GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors, a P2Y12 antagonist, ximelagatran, rivaroxaban, and several early FXIa inhibitors.
Dr. Berkowitz is an author or co-author of 180 peer-reviewed journal articles, over 100 scientific abstracts, and five book chapters. He has been elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP), Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Council on Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, and Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and is also a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the International Society for Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH), and the Society for Vascular Medicine (SVM).