News from Clinipace, PHT, and Catabis – People on the move
Clinipace has appointed two new leadership members in Andrea Schiefer and John Larus.
Schiefer, who will become VP of European clinical operations and executive director of pharmacovigilance, first joined the company in May 2011. Prior to Clinipace she worked in senior management for CROs including Medpace and Quintiles.
Former Fulcrum Pharma chief operating officer John Larus will be executive VP of clinical operations.
In his new role, he is responsible for leading the project management, clinical monitoring and safety groups within the U.S. clinical operations unit at Clinipace Worldwide, whilst Schiefer will adopt the same responsibilities in Europe.
PHT Corporation has named David Avakian as its new chief architect.
The firm, which specialises in ePRO (electronic patient reported outcomes), have placed Avakian in charge of its design process for software, systems and infrastructure of the PRO system.
Prior to joining PHT, Avakian worked at Phase Forward, providing leadership on several products in the clinical space including Oracle’s health sciences trial center and central coding.
Of his new role, he said: “PHT continues to raise the bar in delivering ePRO Systems that dramatically improve the process used by sponsors and CROs to collect clinical trial data.”
NeuroCog Trials has hired Michael Hufford as chief operating officer.
Prior to joining the firm, he was VP of clinical development at Cypress Bioscience, and was responsible for drug and medical device development for multiple CNS programs.
At NeuroCog Hufford will be at the helm of the company’s continued growth and expansion, research and development, and operations.
"The investment in research and development for pro-cognitive therapies across a wide variety of therapeutic areas has never been stronger, and we are delighted to have Dr. Hufford bring the wealth of his experience in industry, academia and entrepreneurship to the company,” said Richard Keefe, founder and CEO at NeuroCog.
In a bid to team its creative and interactive services, AbelsonTaylor has promoted Matt Collins as VP, director of interactive technology.
In his previous position as director of interactive technology, Collins was at the helm the development of desktop and internet applications to enhance the agency’s creative branding campaigns.
The 18-strong team invented the eVE platform as well as eVE for iPad, and as a result were made an Adobe Gold Solutions Partner.
Stephen Neale, senior vice president and executive creative director said: “Matt’s team has turned technology into a competitive advantage for AbelsonTaylor.”
Mike Curtis has been promoted to the role of senior VP of product development and regulatory affairs at Catabasis.
Curtis – who first joined the firm in 2010 as VP of product development –will now be responsible for chemistry, manufacturing and controls functions, toxicology, and regulatory approvals.
He will also continue in his duties leading the company’s product development strategy.
Michael Jioursek, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Catabasissaid orf Curtis: “Under his guidance, Catabasis recently and successfully initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial of CAT-1004, our lead compound in type 2 diabetes. Michael is a critical member of the Catabasis team, and we are pleased to promote him to this new role.”