Covance has appointed Hani Zaki as vice president and general manager of its periapproval services.
Zaki will be responsible for managing large research studies on the use of pharmaceuticals in real world clinical practice.
"The market for periapproval services is likely to accelerate further as manufacturers seek to optimise sales of their in-line products and regulatory changes prompt a heightened need for safety studies," said Luis Gutierrez, President of Covance commercialisation services.
Zaki comes from PharmaNet where he spent nine years as vice president of business development.
PharmaNet has also announced a new appointment recently with Bengt Danielsson joining the company as vice president of PharmaNet Consulting.
PharmaNet Consulting Group offers a range of services to help clients overcome clinical development challenges and is comprised of consultants, including former FDA officials, with expertise in working with international regulatory agencies.
In other news, Quintiles has named Hugo Stephenson president of the company's recently launched service, iGuard , which offers personalised safety information and alerts to patients on the prescription drugs they are taking.
Prior to this, Stephenson had been senior vice president of Quintiles' Strategic Research and Safety services, a position he held since joining the company in 2003.
The current US drug safety monitoring system relies on physicians to voluntarily report any serious drug reactions and doctors are expected to identify "signals" that a drug might be causing adverse events.
However, according to Quintiles, it is estimated that only a small percentage of physicians file reports to the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) postmarketing surveillance programme, known as MedWatch.
An FDA analysis found that pharmacists and consumers each filed more MedWatch reports than did physicians in 2004, said Quintiles.
With iGuard, it said, if a serious side effect is suspected based on the information provided by the patient, iGuard sends an FDA MedWatch form to the patient which they are instructed to give to their physician.
Meanwhile, PPD has announced that Susan Atkinson has been promoted to senior vice president of global biostatistics and data management.
In her new role, Dr Atkinson will lead the contract research organisation's (CRO) global biostatistics and data management business which includes electronic data capture (EDC) operations, CSS Informatics and PPD Medical Device.
Atkinson joined PPD in 1991 as a senior biostatistician and was most recently in charge of Phase I-IV biostatistics, programming and data management for PPD's US operations.