Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has replaced Mike Leavitt as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the activities of the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health.
David Leonard, president of PharmEng International unit Keata Sydney, has left the contract research organisation to pursue other interests. Alex Della Mora has been appointed interim general manager of the facility, and along with Jack Basarke will be responsible for the company's overall continued quality assurance and regulatory affairs.
Ireland-listed biotechnology firm Elan has appointed Carlos Paya as president of the company. Paya joins the firm from a vice president role at US drug major Eli Lilly, before which he was vice dean of clinical investigation at the Mayo Clinic. He will be based at Elan's South San Francisco campus and will be responsible for the integration of the firm's R&D, as well as its commercial and marketing functions.
Praxis, a company specializing in centralised patient recruitment for clinical research studies, has named Megan Sturm as its business development manager for the Northeast US and Southern California territories. Meanwhile, Malissa Bowman has been promoted to the post of senior patient recruitment coordinator.
Germany's Evotec has named chief operating officer Mario Polywka and chief financial officer Klaus Maleck as joint interim heads of the firm after the departure of chief executive Joern Aldag, who will resign effective December 31 to pursue other opportunities.
Non-profit independent research and development organisation Battelle has hired Thomas Snowberger as its senior vice president of human resources, starting on February 2, 2009. He replaces Robert Smith, who is retiring after being with Battelle for 30 years.
The Japanese office of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations has appointed Patrick Chocat as vice president, working alongside current VP Masuhiro Kato. Chocat is president of French drug major Sanofi-Aventis' Japanese business.
VirtualHealth Technologies, which operates the Veriscrip Real-Time Prescription Monitoring System, a has appointed Anthony Bocchichio to its advisory board. Bocchichio has over 37 years of experience in Federal drug law enforcement, 25 of which was spent with the Drug Enforcement Agency.