Patheon, Icon and Vetter Pharma-Fertigung - People on the move
the move in the world of pharmaceutical outsourcing.
Patheon has announced an exective re-shuffle, with a number of new top-level appointments being made. "One of my near-term priorities has been to strengthen and rebuild the executive team for Patheon," said Patheon's CEO and president Wes Wheeler. Eric Evans will now serve as compay chief financial officer (CFO), joining the firm from Novartis, as the current CFO John Bell, leaves Patheon at the end of the month "to pursue new opportunities". Reporting to Wheeler, Evans will not only manage the company's financial function, but also work with Wheeler and Patheon's executive team "as we create strategic and operational improvements in the business," Wheeler said. It was also revealed by Patheon that Paul Garofolo has been given the role of senior vice president and chief information officer, where he will have responsibility for Information Technology globally including the development and implementation of a five year global IT Master Plan for Patheon. "In addition he will assume responsibility for 'The Patheon advantage', Patheon's lean six sigma excellence program" said Wheeler. Before joining the company, Garofolo most recently worked with Valeant Pharmaceuticals where he was also the chief information officer. At the same time, Doaa Fathallah has been moved into the position of senior vice president of General Counsel Europe and Global Pharmaceutical Development Services at the Canadian contract manufacturer. Fathallah was recruited from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, where she was General Counsel, Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and was responsible for all legal matters in the EMEA region. Furthermore, Warren Horton has taken up the post of vice president of Global Quality Operations. Horton will be responsible for "establishing a new quality system to be consistently applied at all Patheon sites. He will also ensure that the company meets all regulatory requirements for quality and compliance," said Wheeler. Prior to joining Patheon he was employed by DSM Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for quality assurance and regulatory affairs. Moving on, Icon has also announced four key appointments, aimed at enhancing its ability to assist clients with pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD), modeling and simulation services. Dr Thomas Frey, president of Icon Development Solutions, said: "Pharmaceutical data analysis and methodology are critical factors in the drug development process; with these new appointments, we will be able to help our clients maximise the efficiency and impact of their clinical studies and development strategies." Dr Roger Toothaker has joined the contract research organisation (CRO) as global vice president of Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Modeling and Simulation where he will oversee the strategic application of these areas. Previously, Toothaker was vice president of Clinical Development at Akros Pharma. In addition, appointed to the role of vice president of Pharmacometrics, Dr Robert Bauer will now "drive the design and development" of PK/PD models, statistics and computational techniques for Icon, to assist clients with modeling and simulation projects. Prior to joining Icon, Bauer was an employee of XOMA, where he held the position of senior director of Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Bioinfomatics. Moreover, Dr Ekaterina Gibiansky has joined Icon as senior director of Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Modeling and Simulation. Most recently Gibiansky was the director of PK/PD, Clinical Development at MedImmune. Finally, Dr Nidal Al-Huniti has joined Icon as principal scientist, leaving behind his position as senior associate at Pharsight Corporation . According to the firm he brings experience in PK/PD modeling, population PK/PD and statistics and knowledge of Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo Bayesian hierarchical modeling methods and their application in modeling and simulation. Moving on from Icon, Vetter Pharma-Fertigung said it is also strengthening its top management team, with the recruitment of Peter Soelkner. As of 1 June, Soelkner will be heading a number of divisions at the German services firm, which specialises in the filling of prefilled injection systems. According to the company, his new tasks will include global key account management, corporate marketing, supply chain management and project management. In addition, Soelkner will also be joining the current Managing Directors Max Horn and Thomas Otto in "handling company business", Vetter said. Soelkner's previous post was as vice president of Global KAM at Stedim Biotech, USA, where his achievements include the management of the merger of Sartorius and Stedim to form Sartorius Stedim Biotech.
