News from Sirona, Hospira, and Biogen Idec – People on the move
Sirona Biochem has named Sean Cunliffe as chief business officer.
Cunliffe, who will also join the board of directors, will be responsible for program evaluation and selection as well as growth plans for the company.
He joines the firm from Angiotech, where he was senior VP of sales and marketing.
Howard Verrico, Sirona president and CEO, said Cunliffe’s appointment comes as the company prepares to mature to a “partner-ready stage”.
Array BioPharma has elected Gwen Fyfe to its board of directors.
An oncology biotechnology veteran with more than 20 years in the drug development game, Fyfe most notably served in several management positions for Genetech (part of the Roche Group) including VP oncology development.
She joins the company as it pushed forward its small molecule cancer therapies, including Rituxan, Herceptin, Avastin and Tarceva.
“It's an exciting time to join the Board of Directors of Array. The Company's diverse pipeline of products and its multiple successful partnerships reflect the quality of Array's research and development efforts,” said Fyfe.
Richard Davies has become the new senior VP and CCO for injectables and infusion tech maker Hospira.
Davies joins the team from Amgen, where he served as VP and general manager, for Japan, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
In his new role he will head the development of the firm’s commercial strategies, and is responsible for delivering a healthy revenue growth.
CEO Michael Ball said: "Richard is an accomplished and dynamic global commercial executive, and we expect to leverage his deep expertise to advance our leadership positions worldwide by executing customer-centric strategies and an aggressive portfolio expansion initiative."
Biogen Idec has named Kenneth DiPietro as executive VP of human resources.
DiPietro was most recently senior VP of human resources at Lenovo Group.
In his new role he will be in charge of talent management, talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, and global human resources operations and systems.
George Scangos, CEO of Biogen said: “Culture is what separates a good company from a great company, and in Ken, we have a proven leader who I'm confident will foster and build upon our culture of excellence as we enter a period of great opportunity for Biogen Idec.”
DiPietro added: “I look forward to being at the forefront of driving that effort.”
CNS (central nervous system) specialists Acadia Pharmaceuticals has drafted William Wells onto its board of directors.
Previously, Wells was CEO of Biovail Corporation, serving from May 2008 until September 2010 when the company merged with Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Uli Hacksell, Acadia’s CEO said: “We will benefit from Bill's experience and perspective as we continue to advance our pipeline of product candidates, which is led by our Phase III pimavanserin program, and position pimavanserin for commercial success in the specialty neurology market.”
