Roche, Alexza Pharmaceuticals, WuXi PharmaTech, Ambrx and NovaDel Pharma - People on the move
Pharma have all had people on the move in the world of
pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Late last week Roche announced that Severin Schwan, current CEO of Roche Diagnostics, will succeed Franz Humer as chief executive of the Roche Group. Schwan will take over the position as of March next year, leaving Humer to focus on his role as chairman of Roche Holdings. Both men have been with Roche for a number of years, Schwan joining the firm in 1993 and Humer in 1995 after fourteen years of service at Glaxo. Nasrat Hakim has been appointed vice president of quality at Alexza Pharmaceuticals, moving across from previous quality and compliance roles at Actavis and Alpharma. Hakim will take responsibility for developing and executing quality programme strategies for the company's manufacturing operations and preclinical/clinical product candidates. Prior to his position at Actavis and Alpharma, hakim also worked for Watson Pharmaceuticals and TheraTech. WuXi PharmaTech has announced another appointment, this time naming Deepak Hegde as president of the company's formulation development services unit. In the new role, Hegde will oversee the portfolio of formulation-based services offered by the R&D outsourcing company. Prior to joining WuXi PharmaTech, Hegde held positions at USV, one of the largest Indian generics companies, as well as Sandoz, the generics arm of Novartis. Stephen Kaldor has joined Ambrx as president and chief executive officer at the biopharmaceutical company. Kaldor previously held senior positions at Takeda San Diego, Syrrx and Eli Lilly. And finally, NovaDel Pharma has announced that Jan Egberts has handed in his resignation, stepping down from his positions as president and CEO of the company. Steven Ratoff, chairman of the company's board, will be taking over to serve as interim president and CEO. Egberts is moving on to consider other projects, leaving the company to continue development of its oral spray technology and push forward with its new drug application for zolpidem oral spray later this year.
