The US Pharmacopeia (USP) has appointed Nelson dos Santos as interim vice president (VP) of its Sao Paulo, Brazil facility. Dos Santos joined USP in 2008 after working at Federacao Brasileira das Industria Farmaceutica, a Brazilian pharmaceutical trade group, for eight years.
Susan Schniepp, vice president of quality at OSO BioPharmaceuticals Manufacturing, has been elected to the board of directors at the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA). Schniepp has worked with the USP, Antisoma and Javelin.
Prolong Pharmaceuticals has named Hemant Misra as VP, manufacturing and facilities operations. Misra has previously worked at XTL Biopharmaceuticals, Genzyme Transgenics and Activecyte.
Matthias Zachert, chief financial officer of Lanxess AG, has been appointed a member of the executive board and general partner at Merck KGaA. Zachert is replacing Michael Becker who will retire in 2011.
Merck has also promoted Frederic Wohlwend to chief information officer, replacing Kai Beckmann who will join the executive board. Wohlwend worked at Serono from 1991 until its acquisition by Merck. He was highly involved in IT integration of Serono and Millipore.
Helix BioMedix has promoted Robin Carmichael to VP and chief operating officer. Carmichael joined Helix in 2007 having previously worked at DERMAdoctor, ProCyte and Photomedex.
John Langstaff is to step down as president and CEO of Canadian biotech Cangene. Langstaff has led Cangene for 20 years but will now be replaced, on an interim basis, by Mike Graham, the current chief financial officer.
Aceto has promoted Guillaume Saint-Clair to head of its international pharmaceutical intermediates business. Saint-Clair joined Aceto in 2011 as a result of the merger with Schweizerhall.
Benjamin Wittich has been hired to lead the continuous improvement team at Remcon Plastics, a producer of material handling containers for pharma and other industries. Wittich has completed Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean Sensei training at Villanova University.