US biotechnology company La Jolla Pharmaceutical has promoted Gail Sloan to vice president of finance, controller and secretary. Sloan has previously worked with Affymax Research Institute and Ernst & Young.
Avecia Biotechnology has named Dr Charles Shields to the newly created position of director, global business development for its DNA Medicines business. He will lead commercial activity and new customer programmes in DNA early phase and clinical development services, working through Avecia's DNA medicines teams at both the facilities in the UK and in the US. Concurrently, Avecia has appointed Dr Mark Douglas to the new role of manager, intellectual property. With extensive track records in Avecia's biotechnology businesses, Shields and Douglas are both based in the UK, and report to Dr Mick Mclean, president of Avecia Biotechnology Inc.
Acambis has appointed Ross Graham as an independent non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee. Graham was most recently corporate development director of Misys, a London-listed information technology company that supplies global software products and solutions to the healthcare, banking and financial services industries. He stepped down from Misys' Board of Directors at the end of 2003 after more than 16 years. During his time with the company, Misys expanded rapidly, principally through acquisition. Its revenues grew from £3.5m to £1bn and the number of employees grew from 60 to 6,500.
Canadian biotechnology company Oncolytics Biotech has appointed Jim Dinning to the board of directors. Dinning is currently executive vice-president, TransAlta Corporation. Prior to joining TransAlta in 1997, he held several key positions during his 11 years as a member of the legislative assembly of Alberta, including his term as provincial treasurer from 1992 to 1997.
Dr Pradeep Sanghvi is joining MonoSolRx as its vice president of pharmaceutical development. He was previously with the oral drug development company Penwest Pharmaceuticals, where he served as director of pharmaceutical development. MonoSolRx is a drug delivery company that uses film as a fast-dissolve oral drug delivery platform.
