Charlie Plain-Jones has been appointed sales director of UK company Absolute Vision, developer of 2D code reading and machine vision solutions. He will lead the company's expansion programme to supply code-reading solutions across several industries, including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
International drug development company PharmaNet has appointed Dr Manuela Niewel to its oncology division as medical director, oncology, Europe. Dr Niewel has held senior positions in pharmaceutical and CRO companies, including American Cyanamid and Sanofi-Synthelabo. Prior to joining PharmaNet, she was medical director and chief scientific officer at a contract research organisation specialising in the conduct of oncology-specific clinical research programmes.
French biotechnology company METabolic EXplorer, which specialises in the development and production of biologically based processes for the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, has announced the appointment of Dr Philippe Soucaille to the position of chief scientific officer. He is a world-renowned professor at the INSA of Toulouse (French National Institute for Applied Sciences). Previously he served as senior scientist and project leader at Genencor International.
Drug discovery and development company MDS Pharma Services has appointed a director of bioanalytical operations in Europe. Detlef Thiele will manage bioanalytical operations at the company's 3,200m2 facility in Zurich, Switzerland, which includes mass spectrometry, ligand binding and molecular biology units, as well as project management and scientific support services. He will also oversee GLP and regulatory compliance and coordinate MDS Pharma Services' global policies and procedures. Thiele was previously head of production for Baxter in Vienna, Austria.
UK-based coding software manufacturer Claricom has appointed a new UK sales engineer. Phil Molloy will provide expert support on auto-coding systems for the reduction of package coding errors in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors. Pieter Strijkert has retired as chairman of the supervisory board of Dutch biotechnology company PamGene International. In the interim he will be succeeded by Jean Deleage, member of the board since December 2000.