Frank Torti, the US Food and Drug Administration's chief scientist, has been named acting commissioner at the agency. President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce a permanent FDA head within the next three weeks. Meanwhile William Gimson III, chief operating officer at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will serve as acting director after current chief Julie Gerberding leaves the agency on January 20.
Parexel has named Josephine Hoppe as corporate vice president and chief information officer. Hoppe is responsible for managing the CRO’s information technology initiatives and integrating technology solutions with business processes.
DS Pharma Services has appointed Dr. Jessica Liu to the position of clinical operations director and head of the Asia-Pacific region for its late-stage clinical trial management division.
AMRI has appointed Dr. Junan Guo as senior director, analytical and quality services. Guo fills the role vacated by Dr. Steven Hagen, who was promoted to vice president of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing in September last year.
Mark Schweiker, the former president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, has joined PRWT Services Inc as head of business process outsourcing. PRWT is a collective of pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution, business processing services, facilities management and other related businesses.
Gary Thompson has joined contract research organisation bioRASI as vice president of business development.
DSM has named Luca Rosetto as corporate vice president, safety, health, environment and manufacturing (CSHE&M), with effect from 1 March. Rosetta is currently business unit director Europe/Americas within DSM’s Anti-Infectives group.
Dr. Erika Nemeth has been appointed operations manager of Synexus Hungary, a subsidiary of clinical research specialist Synexus of the UK, with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the company’s site in Budapest.
Market research and intelligence company GfK HealthCare said that Lance Richard has been appointed director of their Market Access Centre, which recommends strategy and actions to ensure optimal pricing and reimbursement of products.