Brecon Pharmaceuticals has continued the expansion of its analytical services unit with the appointments of Melanie Batten as laboratory manager and Terry Campbell as senior analyst. Batten joins from AstraZeneca, where she spent six years in first line laboratory management, while Campbell joins from Patheon and brings with him more than 20 years" industry experience and considerable expertise in raw materials testing.
Dominic Clavell has joined Synexus, of Manchester in the UK, as international operations director with responsibility for the management and operation of all Synexus research centres in the UK, Eastern Europe and India. He joins the company from Novartis, where he was head of UK clinical research operations for two-and-a-half years and worked across many therapeutic areas, including transplantation, cardiovascular, metabolic diseases and CNS.
VASTox has a new specialist consultant for its carbohydrate chemistry business in the shape of Professor George Fleet. From Oxford University's department of chemistry, Fleet is widely recognised as one of the world's foremost experts on carbohydrate chemistry, having published in excess of 400 academic papers and consulted for many of the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He will work with VASTox to provide technical input into its drug development programmes and its growing services business.
John Daw has become project pursuit manager for Fisher Valves and Regulators, a division of Emerson Process Management, replacing John Pickett who will retire later this year. Daw has worked for Emerson for 20 years, and in his new role will work in partnership with the engineering team and sales personnel to provide support throughout all phases of a project's lifecycle.
Avecia has announced a new three-man board for its parent company Avecia Holdings as part of a new phase in its corporate development. Adrian Buckmaster, former ceo of the Automotive Products Group and Dobson Park Industries, has joined as ceo and director; Duncan McLellan, who worked on the original financing for the launch of Avecia and was appointed group controller in 1999, has become chief financial officer, and Dr Kevin Cox, president of the Avecia Biologics business unit since October 2005 and former vice president of biotechnology at the company, has become executive director.