Charles River Laboratories announced last week the appointment of Cheri Walker as corporate senior vice president for the corporate development business effective 24 April.
The US-based contract research organisation (CRO) said Walker will be responsible for the company's global corporate development function, directing all aspects of merger, acquisition and strategic joint venture activities.
Walker comes from Qiagen Sciences where she was vice president of mergers and acquisitions, overseeing the corporate development of Qiagen's North Amercian life sciences tolls and molecular diagnostics businesses.
Prior to that, she held senior corporate development and operational positions at Invitrogen where she executed acquisitions and licensing transactions.
The firm has been active in this part of the business. Last month Charles River signed a joint venture deal with Shanghai BioExplorer, a Chinese preclinical services provider. Earlier this year, the CRO also confirmed it is persevering in its intention to focus on its preclinical and Phase I businesses while abandoning its late stage development services. To assist this, the company recently bought a Phase I facility in Washington State which is used in tandem with its Reno preclinical facility.
Omnicare Clinical Research has also announced new appointments this month.
The CRO has promoted Deborah Brewer to senior vice president of global sales for the marketing and new business initiatives. Previously she held the position of vice president of international sales and marketing.
In her new role, Brewer will oversee a team of business development experts around the world and will continue to "drive the company's penetration into emerging markets and the medical device sector", the company said.
Omnicare also recently appointed Paul Baldwin as vice president of public affairs, Scott Arledge as vice president of Pharmacy Services and Christopher Ross as director of Investor Relations.
Meanwhile, Albany Molecular Research (AMRI) has named Raymond Yeung to manage operations at its Singapore subsidiary.
In his new position, Yeung will lead all operations at AMRI's Singapore Research Centre. Prior to joining AMRI, Yeung was director for Asia-Pacific operations at MDS Pharma Services, where he oversaw the development of strategic initiatives and managed the day-to-day operations in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, said the firm.
In other news, Premier Research has announced its founder and former director Guy Patrick sold his entire stake in the company, just a week after announcing his departure to "pursue other interests".
The CRO also said that its chief executive and co-founder Simon Yaxley and its chief development officer Bernard Gallagher have no intention of selling their total stake of around 8 per cent before May next year.
