Teva chooses Erez Vigodman as new CEO

Chutes and Ladders

Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings and firings throughout the industry. Please send the good word--or the bad--from your shop to Michael Gibney (email | Twitter) or Emily Mullin (email | Twitter) and we will feature it here at the end of each week.

Teva chooses Erez Vigodman as CEO 

Three months after Jeremy Levin's departure from Teva ($TEVA) amid internal troubles, the Israeli generics maker has chosen Erez Vigodman to step into the role of CEO on Feb. 11. Meanwhile, interim CEO Eyal Desheh will return to his previous position as CFO, the company said this week. Vigodman is currently president and CEO of huge agrochemical company Makhteshim Agan Industries. Story

Teva
Erez Vigodman will serve as CEO.


Merck Serono
Steven Hildemann was appointed global chief medical officer.


Biotech

Soligenix ($SNGX) appointed Dr. Richard Straube as its chief medical officer. Release

Spark Therapeutics named Joseph La Barge and Carol Greve-Philips as senior vice president of business administration and senior vice president of business development and strategy, respectively. Release

Promedior appointed William Hodder as vice president of business development. Release

Fibrocell Science named Robert Sheroff vice president of technical operations. Release

Richard Wooster joined Blend Therapeutics as the company's chief scientific officer. Release

Idenix ($IDIX) brought on Jacques Dumas as its chief scientific officer. Release

AIBioTech appointed Kristine Bucasas as the company's group leader of clinical services. Release

John Sorenson will helm Vestaron as CEO. Release

Kevin Young, executive vice president of commercial operations at Gilead Sciences ($GILD), is retiring as of Feb. 4 but will continue to work for Gilead as a senior adviser. Release

Bioniche Life Sciences appointed Donald Olds as its chief operating officer. Release

Agile Therapeutics appointed Dr. Elizabeth Ijeoma Onyemelukwe Garner as its chief medical officer. Release

Naurex named Norbert Riedel as president and CEO. Release

Sorrento Therapeutics appointed Amar Singh as executive vice president and chief business officer. Release

Gregory Berk is the new president and chief medical officer of Sideris Pharmaceuticals. Release

Donald deBethizy will serve as the president and CEO of Santaris Pharma. Release

Mersana Therapeutics appointed Dr. Donald Bergstrom and Eva Jack to be its chief medical officer and chief business officer, respectively. Release

Jesper Bramming joined CMC Biologics as chief financial officer. Release

The American Diabetes Association named David DeMarco to its board. Release

Heptares Therapeutics has appointed Dr. Tim Tasker as chief medical officer and vice president of development. Release

Zafgen has appointed Alicia Secor to the newly created position of chief commercial officer and John LaMattina to the company's board of directors. Release

Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($VRTX) has appointed Dr. Jeffrey Chodakewitz as chief medical officer and senior vice president of global medicines development. Release

Axel Polack has stepped down from the board of bluebird bio ($BLUE), and Dr. James Mandell has joined the board. Release

Lion Biotechnologies has appointed James Bender as vice president of product development and manufacturing. Release

OvaScience ($OVAS) has appointed David Stern to the position of executive vice president of global commercial operations. Release

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals has appointed Mark Sieczkarek, Solta Medical chairman and CEO, and Massimo Radaelli, Noventia Pharma CEO, to its board of directors. Release

Priaxon has appointed Constance Hoefer as chief development officer. Release

FORMA Therapeutics has appointed Christopher Dinsmore as vice president of medicinal and computational chemistry. Release

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals ($KBIO) has appointed Harry Lam as head of manufacturing. Release

Cortice Biosciences has hired George Farmer as CEO. Release

Pharma

Merck Serono has appointed Steven Hildemann as global chief medical officer. Story

Kite Pharma brought on Cynthia Butitta as the company's chief financial officer. Release

Amneal Pharmaceuticals has added Rochelle Fuhrmann as chief financial officer. Fuhrmann was most recently senior vice president of finance at Warner Chilcott. Release

Adele Gulfo has joined Mylan ($MYL) as executive vice president of global collaboration and strategic operations. Gulfo previously served as regional president of Latin America in Pfizer's ($PFE) emerging markets business unit. Release

David Moore, who in the past held roles at Ortho-McNeil and Janssen Pharmaceutica, has become executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Cempra. Release

Biotech IT

Numira has named Hal Widlansky as CEO. Prior to joining Numira, Widlansky served as president and COO of Radiate Media. Release