Achillion CEO retires, Chief Scientific Officer Deshpande to step into role

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 Michael Gibney (email | Twitter) or Emily Mullin (email | Twitter) and we will feature it here each Friday.

Achillion CEO retires, Chief Scientific Officer Deshpande to step into role

Achillion Pharmaceuticals ($ACHN), maker of experimental hepatitis C therapies, said this week that President and CEO Michael D. Kishbauch will retire, to be replaced by current president of research and development and chief scientific officer Milind Deshpande. Deshpande will take over after a three-month transition period. He joined the New Haven-based company in 2001 and has been its top scientist since June 2007. Release


Achillion Pharmaceuticals
Milind Deshpande will take over as CEO and president of Achillion Pharmaceuticals after a three-month transition period.

ImmuDyne
Joseph DiTrolio has joined ImmuDyne as the company's new chief medical officer.

 

Biotech

ImmuDyne appointed Joseph V. DiTrolio as its chief medical officer. DiTrolio has served as a consultant for companies such as Novartis ($NVS), Sanofi-Aventis ($SNY), AstraZeneca ($AZN) and Allergan ($AGN). Release

Syngene appointed Henry Bene as the company's product and application support specialist for the midwest arm. Release

Michael R. Deperro joined Agere as the company's vice president of operations. He comes from previous positions at Alkermes ($ALKS) and Taro ($TARO). Release

ChemoCentryx ($CCXI) appointed Ira Klein to its board of directors. Klein was most recently the chief of staff to the chief medical officer at Aetna. Release

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals ($SCMP) appointed Kei S. Tolliver to the company's board of directors. Release

Baylor College of Medicine Professor Dr. Milton Boniuk has been appointed as an independent board member of NanoViricides. Release

David Liu has been named chief scientific officer at Protagonist Therapeutics. Liu is a former vice president of research and a corporate officer at FibroGen. Release

AltheRx Pharmaceuticals has appointed Michael Dougherty, former president and CEO of Adolor ($ADLR), to its board of directors. Release

Pharma

Kite Pharma has appointed Dr. Keith Nolop as chief medical officer. Nolop was previously senior vice president of development and chief medical officer at Plexxikon, a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group. Release

Morgan Brown has joined Innovus Pharma as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Most recently, Brown served in a similar capacity at World Heart Corporation. Release

Synergy Pharmaceuticals ($SGYP) has appointed Dr. Patrick Griffin as chief medical officer. Griffin has been a medical faculty member of Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he held a number of positions. Release

CROs

Dr. Neil McCullough has been named executive vice president of quality and compliance and corporate training at Dublin-based ICON ($ICLR). Release

Chiltern International has promoted Alecia Barbee to the position of vice president, Global Biometrics. Barbee joined Chiltern in 2006 and up until now was responsible for oversight of all biometrics activities in the U.S. Release