Greg McParland has joined Girindus as ceo of Girindus America Inc. He will assume executive management responsibilities for all aspects of the company's North American operations. McParland will report to Robert F. Link, chairman of the board, and will be a member of the executive management committee of Girindus Group.
Dr Charles Rohn has joined the Malvern Instruments rheology products team in the US as applications consultant. He has a distinguished and extensive background in rheological measurement, having held senior positions at both Bohlin Instruments and Rheometrics, as well as running international consulting firm Rohn and Associates. He has a substantial body of published research in the fields of rheology, dynamic mechanical analysis and thermal analysis.
Sidec Technologies, of Stockholm, Sweden, has appointed Hans Johansson as president and ceo. Most recently, Johansson was president of the BioSystems division of Biotage. He succeeds Goesta Sjoeholm who has resigned but will remain with the company during a transition period.
Linda Horton has moved to the Brussels offices of international law firm Hogan & Hartson to further develop the firm's European life sciences practice. She is a partner in the firm's food, drug, medical device and agriculture group whose practice is focused upon European and US regulatory pathways for medical products, clinical trial requirements, innovator rights, and counselling on national regulatory laws and systems.
Martin Madaus has been named as the new president and ceo of Millipore Corporation with effect from 1 February 2005. Dr Madaus joins the company from Roche Diagnostics Corporation where he led a $1.9bn business with 4,000 employees. He succeeds Francis Lunger, who remains as chairman of the board during a transition period. Dr Madaus will also join Millipore's board of directors.
Polymer Laboratories (PL) has recruited Dr Francesco Spadola to manage European sales and customer support for PL's StratoSpheres resins for peptide, solution and solid phase synthesis. He joins PL from Argonaut where he was responsible for managing the sales of chemical development instruments in France, Benelux and Southern Europe.
pSivida has appointed Dr Mark Parry-Billings as r&d director of its UK operating subsidiary pSiMedica Ltd. He joins pSiMedica from Innovata Biomed, where for the past six years he has been director of r&d.
Cyanotech, from Kailua Kona, Hawaii, a world leader in producing high-value natural products from microalgae, has seen the departure of its scientific director, Dr John Dore, effective December 31, 2004. Dr Dore is leaving his position to pursue other opportunities in research, but will maintain a month-to-month consulting relationship with the company during the course of the next six months.
Neurobiological Technologies, a biotechnology company engaged in the business of acquiring and developing central nervous system (CNS) related drug candidates has appointed Karl Trass as director of Regulatory Affairs.
Trass comes to NTI with twelve years of regulatory affairs experience, including supervising the preparation and filing of both new drug applications and biologics applications, which resulted in four compounds receiving FDA marketing approval. He has extensive experience in a variety of therapeutic areas, including oncology and cardiovascular, and has had significant regulatory experience outside of the US.
Paul Freiman, president and ceo of NTI, said: 'Managing the regulatory relationship is a major challenge for pharmaceutical companies, as illustrated by the recent controversy over Vioxx and other COX-2 inhibitors. We expect that Karl's experience and expertise will prove invaluable to NTI as we attempt to develop drugs for the health care market. We expect that Viprinex, a late-stage reperfusion therapy for use in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke, will enter Phase III studies in 2005, subject to FDA approval. And Xerecept, a novel agent for the treatment of brain swelling associated with brain tumours, is currently being evaluated in two pivotal Phase III clinical studies, one of which began in April 2004. Each of these projects will benefit from Karl's presence.'
Trass said: 'The recent news stories revolving around safety concerns with FDA-approved drugs have created an environment in which pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies must be very deliberate and careful in the development and testing of their new drug candidates. For a company like NTI, which now functions internationally, the added responsibilities of meeting varying national requirements makes regulatory affairs especially challenging. I am confident that my background gives me the ability to meet that challenge. I look forward to working with the rest of the NTI team.'
Michael Treble has joined Isis Pharmaceuticals as chief executive officer of its Ibis program. Treble and Dr David Ecker, Isis vice president and president of Ibis, will be responsible for spearheading the strategic direction and commercialisation of the Company's TIGER biosensor technology.
Dr Christopher Missling, chief financial officer and vice president, finance and treasurer of US biotech company ImmunoGen, has left the company to pursue other interests.
Karleen Oberton, ImmunoGen's senior corporate controller, will serve as the company's principal financial and accounting officer while ImmunoGen conducts a search for a new cfo.