Jazz CFO joins Medivation's board of directors

Welcome to this week's roundup of hirings and firings throughout the industry. Please send the good word (or the bad) from your shop to Alison Bryant (email | Twitter) and we will feature it here each Friday.

Jazz CFO joins Medivation's board of directors

Kathryn E. Falberg, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals ($JAZZ), accepted a position on Medivation's ($MDVN) board of directors. Falberg comes to the position with a strong background in pharmaceutical financials; she served as senior vice president of finance and strategy and chief financial officer at Amgen ($AMGN). Prior to that, she was Amgen's vice president, controller and chief accounting officer. Earlier, she worked with a number of smaller companies while also serving as a corporate director and audit committee chair for several companies."I am honored to join the Medivation board of directors at such an exciting time in the company's development," Falberg said. "I admire Medivation's success in identifying and developing novel therapies that treat diseases with limited therapeutic options and look forward to providing strategic guidance to help further grow its business." Release

 
Kathryn E. Falberg--Medivation
Falberg will serve on the board of directors.
 

 
Nikolaj Sørensen--Orexo
Sørensen will serve as CEO.
 

Biotech

Orexo elevated Chief Commercial Officer Nikolaj Sørensen to CEO. Sørensen succeeds Anders Lundström. Also, Chairman Martin Nicklasson is now executive chairman of the board. Release

> Affymax ($AFFY) shuffled its senior management, promoting Christine Conroy to senior vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance, and Tim Varacek to vice president of sales and account management. Conroy served as vice president of regulatory affairs and clinical quality assurance from July 2007 to November 2011. Varacek served as executive director of sales and account management since April 2011. Release

William F. Westlin was appointed head of preclinical research and early development at Nimbus Discovery. Westlin joins Nimbus from Celgene ($CELG), where he was vice president of preclinical research. Release

David Johnson, the chairman of Aquamed Technologies, took the helm at Alliqua as the company's CEO. At the same time, Alliqua brought on James Sapirstein to head its subsidiary, Alliqua BioMedical, as CEO. Release

> Intarcia Therapeutics appointed Owen Hughes Jr. as its chief business officer and head of corporate development. Hughes comes from Brookside Capital, a hedge fund under the Bain Capital umbrella. Release

> Rick Stewart joined the board of directors at BioLife Solutions. Stewart, CEO at Cardiac Dimensions, has been appointed to the board's Audit Committee and replaces Howard Breslow, who resigned. Release

Omni Bio Pharmaceutical appointed Dr. Michael Kamarck as a new director. From 2010 to 2012, Kamarck served as president of Merck BioVentures and senior vice president of vaccines and biologics manufacturing. Release

Georgina Kilfoil, senior vice president of product development at Anthera Pharmaceuticals ($ANTH), announced her departure from the company. Release

> Recipharm appointed Hans Lennernäs to the operating board of Recipharm Pharmaceutical Development. He has served as principal investigator in an extensive collaboration with the FDA, University of Michigan and Sweden's Medical Product Agency. Release

Biologics Inc. has hired Ron Smith as chief operating officer. Previously, Smith served as COO at Physicians Pharmacy Alliance. Release

> Immunotech Laboratories appointed Valentin Dimitrov to serve on the company's board of directors as chief financial adviser. Release

> Aqua Pharmaceuticals co-founder Jay Gooding will retire in early March. Fellow co-founder Craig Ballaron will continue in the role of CEO. Release

CMO

> Aesica recruited Jarrett Palmer as operations director of its formulated products business unit. Palmer has accumulated more than 15 years of experience in senior leadership positions and has managed facilities for global CMOs including Catalent Pharma Solutions and Piramal Healthcare. Release

Programming

> Human Care Systems, a leading provider of services and support programming for biopharmaceutical and medtech companies, appointed Thomas Oglesby as executive director of sales and marketing. Oglesby most recently worked at Medtronic Diabetes. Release