C&L: Una Ryan leaves Avant

Wed, 14 May 2008 06:59:52 -0400

Avant Immunotherapeutics today announced the departure of Una Ryan, Ph.D, President and CEO, effective immediately.

Watson Pharmaceuticals announced that co-founder and Chairman Allen Chao has resigned from the board of directors to pursue other business activities. Board member Andrew Turner will become nonexecutive chairman.

Ardea Biosciences has named John Beck senior vice president, finance and operations and chief financial officer.

Encorium Group has appointed Philip Calamia as its interim chief financial officer.

PregLem has named Sven Zimmermann, a biotech analyst at UBS Investment Bank, as its new chief financial officer.

Nucryst Pharmaceuticals revealed the appointment of David Holtz as vice president and chief financial officer.

Kendle has appointed Patricia Williams to the position of vice president, commercial operations.

Adnavance Technologies has appointed Christian P. Valcke, Ph.D., to its scientific advisory board.

Gilead Sciences on Wednesday said that Chief Executive Officer John C. Martin was named chairman of the biotechnology company's board of directors.

Vyteris named John E. Burrows and Susan Guerin to the company's board of directors,

Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation has named John Varian to the company's board of directors.

DOR BioPharma announced that its President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Schaber, PhD, has joined the board of directors of the Alliance for Biosecurity.

Inovio Biomedical announced that Patrick Gan was elected as the company's eighth director at Inovio's annual general meeting.

Human Genome Sciences announced that John LaMattina, Ph.D., who retired in late 2007 as president of Pfizer Global Research and Development, has been appointed to the HGS board of directors.

Robert Hill has joined the Biothera board of directors.

Pfizer shows the door to two top executives

Sun, 20 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Jeffrey Kindler's plans to shake up Pfizer have led to the departure of two top executives. John LaMattina, global head of research, will retire and Alan Levin resigned as chief financial officer, Pfizer announced on Sunday. The two had 50 years of experience at Pfizer, which is laying off 10,000 workers in a major restructuring. But Kindler wants fresh faces at Pfizer, saying "We intend to make our internal capability even more effective by tapping into the best scientific capability outside our walls -- wherever it exists.'' LaMattina's most recent program had been the ill-fated torcetrapib, which was shelved after data showed that the drug was linked to higher blood pressure. There will be tremendous pressure on his successor to come up with several major new approvals to replace the drugs slated to lose patent protection in coming years.

- check out the AP report

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