News from Israel, Bangladesh and Australia – People on the move
We start off this week with a new appointment right at the top ranks of Aeterna Zentaris. The company has appointed industry veteran David Dodd as its new President and CEO.
Dodd – who will also serve on Aeterna Zentaris’ board – has previously been CEO and Chairman of BioReliance Corporation and will succeed Dr. Juergen Ernst who said: “With the appointment of David, we are taking an important first step in transforming Aeterna Zentaris from a company focused on R&D to a company focused on commercializing the promising compounds in our pipeline.”
Aeterna Zenatris was in the news earlier this month as they penned a profit-sharing deal with CRO Ergomed. Read about it here.
To Bangladesh now and generic drugmaker Beximco Pharma has appointed Faheemul Huq to its Board of Directors, following the resignation of Ahsanul Karim.
A Barrister-at-Law in England and Wales, an Advocate to the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and a member of the Bangladesh Supreme Court and Dhaka Bar Associations, Huq has been appointed for an initial three year term.
And Beximco appeared within these pages recently as they began shipping formulations to Europe. Click here to read more.
From Bangladesh to Israel and Oramed Pharmaceuticals – whose oral insulin development you can read about here – have appointed Joshua Hexter as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Business Development.
Hexter, who was most recently Executive Director of Corporate In-Licensing at BioLineRx, has more than 15 years of biotech leadership experience and, according to Oramed CEO Nadav Kidron: “Will be a great addition and complement to Oramed's executive team as we enter a new era in our clinical trials and activities.”
News from Transcept Pharmaceuticals next, as Dr. Thomas Dietz, Chairman and CEO of Waypoint Holdings, joins the board as an independent director.
According to Glenn Oclassen, CEO of Transcept, with over 20 years in the biopharma realm “the addition of Tom Dietz further enhances the Board's already strong pharmaceutical industry expertise.”
He continued to say: "Tom brings a track-record of success and deep industry knowledge, and his viewpoint and advice will be important as we move through the next stage of our corporate development."
Over to biotech company AtheroNova, who has named Dr. Stephen Nicholls as Chair of its Clinical Advisory Board.
“Steve is one of the world's most respected authorities in the imaging of atherosclerosis," said Dr. Mark Wedel, Chief Medical Officer of AtheroNova. "We are profoundly fortunate and appreciative to benefit from his leadership and expertise as we move forward. His legacy in the battle against cardiovascular disease first at the Cleveland Clinic and now at SAHMRI is world renown and look forward to his contribution. In addition to the other recent additions at the Company, Steve's role is an exponential addition to our clinical developments efforts here at AtheroNova.”
AtheroNova has also recently appointed Dr. John Kastelein as its Co-Principal Investigator.
And finally in this week’s rather international People’s Column we head over to Australia where biotech company Benitec Biopharma Limited has appointed Kevin Buchi to its Board of Directors.
Buchi, who served as Chief Executive Officer of Cephalon through its $6.8 billion acquisition by Teva in October 2011, is also a member of the boards of Stemline Therapeutics, Forward Pharma and Alexza Pharmaceuticals.
Benitec’s Chairman, Mr. Peter Francis, said of the appointment: “Kevin's impressive track record in the international biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry over 30 years provides Benitec with significant additional business development strength, and importantly, networking capacity in the United States and Europe.”
