Icon has today announced two new members to its team. Dr Joseph Schappert has come on board as medical director and Dr Bodgan Podwysocki has joined the firm in the position of scientific director, Europe.

Based in the New York central laboratory, Schappert will now preside over global regulatory and quality issues and assist clients in designing appropriate laboratory testing for protocol development. Prior to joining Icon he was associate chair, Department of Diagnostic Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.

Meanwhile, Podwysocki, will operate from the Icon's European central laboratory in Dublin. He hails from Novartis Pharma, Switzerland, where he served as clinical research scientist/trial leader for the global Infectious Diseases, Transplantation and Immunology unit.

Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has appointed two new staff members as part of a reshuffle of its clinical operations, which has now been divided into four regions - North America, Latin America, Europe-Middle east-Africa, and Asia.

Former GlaxoSmithKline employee Simon Britton will now head PPD's clinical operations in Asia, while ex-Eli Lilly veteran Paul Colvin will be his counterpart overseeing the North American clinical operations.

Rival contract research organisation (CRO) Chiltern has recruited Steve Albrecht to the role of director, business operations, Late Phase. In this role he will oversee the company's work on Phase IIIb/IV (post marketing) studies.

"Today, FDA and the pharmaceutical industry are mandating an ever-increasing number of post-marketing trials to follow products in a real-world setting. These studies require high quality standards yielding high quality data", he said.

Another two CROs have made senior appointments this past week. Kendle promoted Mary Briggs to vice president of global sales. Since 2005 she has held the position of senior director of strategic accounts.

As has Omnicare Clinical Research, who promoted Nancy Meyerson-Hess to senior vice president of project management, international. Prior to this she served in the firm as vice president of the same division.

Meanwhile, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) specialist Aesica has announced a number of new appointments at its UK base. Lal Khan takes over the role of Business Development Manager at the pharmaceutical manufacturer, joining the company from DSM Pharma Chemicals.

The company also has a new commercial director in the form of Alan Raymond, who has joined the company permanently following a period working for the firm in an interim role. Keith Payne is coming on board as sales and marketing director for formulated products, moving from his previous role at NextPharma, and Ian Mains will be joining as the firm's new corporate services manager. Mains brings experience from working with the North East Process Industry Cluster, a consortium of 200 companies based in North East England, as well as time at BASF and the Boots Group.