Abbott Laboratories has named the team of in-house execs who are set to lead its upcoming spin off CMO (contract manufacturing organisation) AbbVie.
As previously reported firm, which recently announced plans to launch its proprietary pharmaceutical unit as a separate publically traded company this year, has placed current CEO of the pharma division, Richard Gonzalez, in the chief’s seat for the new company.
Joining him is VP of licensing and acquisitions, William Chase, who will become CFO.
Keeping and transferring their job roles from Abbott to AbbVie is general counsel Laura Schumacher, senior VP of pharmaceutical research and development John Leonard and senior VP of proprietary pharmaceutical products Carlos Alban.
Timothy Richmond, who is currently divisional VP of compensation and benefits will become chief human resources officer for AbbVie.
The US National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) has named Deborah Guadalupe Duran as chief of the office of strategic planning, legislation, and science policy.
Duran first joined the NIH (National Institute of Health) in 2001 as a as a senior policy analyst for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
In her new role she will lead the development and assessment of the institute’s health disparities research agenda.
"Dr. Duran is a well-respected leader. Her wealth of expertise in strategic planning, science policy, and evaluation will be quite valuable to the NIMHD in leading the NIH priority setting and evaluation for health disparities research," said NIMHD director John Ruffin.
Trophos has named Christine Placet its new CEO.
Previously the pharma’s CFO, Placet will focus on creating more partnerships for drug candidates Olesoxime, for spinal muscular atrophy and multiple sclerosis (MS) – currently in phase IIa – and TRO40303 for cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI).
“There is considerable market potential of nearly $2bn for the conditions targeted by our pipeline,” said Placet. “I am delighted to be working with the Trophos management and its board to build further value in the next stage of its development.”
Placet takes over from of Damian Marron, who left to take on the role of CEO at Cytheris.
In his new position, Marron will drive the biotech’s lead compound CYT107 (glycosylated r-hIL-7), currently under clinical evaluation for orphan indication progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in severely lymphopenic patients, as well as for therapy in immune non-responders with HIV.
“I am delighted to be taking on responsibility for leading Cytheris in the next stage of its development,” he said.
Achillion has drafted Kurt Graves onto its board as an independent director.
Graves also currently serves as chairman, president and CEO of Intarcia Therapeutics.
"We are very pleased to have Kurt join the Board of Directors, as his extensive strategic knowledge of hepatitis C and successful career in transforming pharmaceutical companies complements the expertise of the entire Achillion Board," commented David Scheer, chairman.
Kassim Kolia has become head of business development for Ark Therapeutics Group.
He joins the firm from Eden Biodesign – part of Watson Pharmaceuticals – where he was head of business development for contract development and manufacturing services.
In his new role he will be responsible for building the manufacturing services business at Ark’s viral process development and manufacturing facility based in Kuopio, Finland.
David Venables, executive director of manufacturing services, said: "Kassim's extensive experience in winning manufacturing service contracts will enable us to accelerate the development of our world-leading contract viral product development and manufacturing services capability into a major, self-sustaining business.”