People on the Move-April

Pfizer is positioning its senior management following the merger with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. As laid out by CEOs Jeff Kindler and Bernard Poussot, it will form two distinct research organizations, PharmaTherapeutics Research Group for small molecules, and BioTherapeutics Research Group, for large molecules and vaccines. Martin Mackay, who now heads Pfizer Global R&D will manage the former; Mikael Dolsten, currently President of Wyeth Research, will head the latter.

On the commercial side, Ian Read, currently President of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Operations for Pfizer, will become Group President, Pfizer BioPharmaceutical Businesses. In that capacity, he will lead a group that includes five leading biopharmaceutical businesses:

Primary Care, led by President Olivier Brandicourt.

Specialty Care and Vaccines, be led by President Geno Germano, currently President of Wyeth’s US and Pharmaceuticals business. Jim Connolly, currently Wyeth’s EVP and GM, Vaccines, will be President, Vaccines, reporting to Germano.

Emerging Markets will continue to be led by President Jean-Michel Halfon.

Oncology will continue to be led by President Garry Nicholson

Established Products will continue to be led by President David Simmons.

Cavan Redomond, currently President of Wyeth’s Consumer Healthcare business, will become Group President, Pfizer Diversified Businesses, reporting to Kindler, and managing these businesses:

Animal Health will continue to be led by President Juan-Ramon Alaix

Capsugel will continue to be led by President Guido Driesen

Consumer Health will be led by President Paul Sturman, currently President, US and Global Business Development, New Products for Wyeth Consumer Healthcare

Nutritional Health will be led by President Erica Mann, currently Managing Director of Wyeth Australia and New Zealand.

Robert Gallotto has been promoted from SVP, Operations, to Chief Business Officer at Alnara Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA). The company is preparing to submit an NDA for a pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. Prior to joining Alnara, he served as VPce president of strategic planning, business and commercial development at Altus Pharmaceuticals, where he worked from 2001 to 2008.

Halozyme Therapeutics (San Diego) has appointed Kurt Gustafson as VP, Finance, and he will become CFO in May. He comes to Halozyme from Amgen, where his most recent position was VP, Manufacturing Finance. David Ramsey, current CFO, will transition to a new position as VP, Corporate Development.

Auspex Pharmaceuticals (Vista, Ca) is building out is management team: Ronald Newbold, PhD, is appointed Chief Business Officer; previously, he was SVP of Business Development at Celldex Therapeutics. Andreas Sommer, PhD, is now VP, Operations; his prior appointment was CEO at Celtrix Pharmaceuticals. Tadimeti Rao, PhD., has been appointed VP, Preclinical Development. His prior experience was as Director of Pharmacology at Kalpsys, Inc. Auspex is developing “deuteration” of drugs by treating them with deuterium, the isotope of hydrogen.

The new President and CEO of Cerulean Pharma, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) is Oliver Fetzer, who is succeeding Alan Crane who will now become Chairman. Dr. Fetzer comes to Cerulean from Cubist Pharmaceuticals, where he was SVP, Corporate Research and Development. Cerulean is developing biotherapeutics based on nanotechnology.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

Surescripts (Alexandria, VA) has named Harry Totonis as president and CEO. The action represents a next step in the rapid evolution of the electronic-prescribing function in healthcare. Surescripts, founded by pharmacy organizations, had merged with another e-prescribing company, RxHub, founded by PBMs, last year. At the beginning of this year, healthcare information technology received a substantial boost from the Obama stimulus package, which dedicated $19 billion to electronic medical-records practices (Pharmaceutical Commerce, March, p. 24).

Totonis comes to Surescripts from his position as head of Advisors Services at MasterCard, the professional and information-services arm of MasterCard Worldwide. “Surescripts’ neutral and nationwide network is uniquely positioned to enable all healthcare participants to improve patient safety and care, maximize efficiency and, ultimately, drive down costs,” he says.

JP Little and Rick Ratliff, longtime senior executives and co-CEOs since the merger, are planning to stay with the company.

Robert Carpenter, former SVP at Aramark International, has been elected CEO of GS1 US, Inc. (Lawrenceville, NJ), the domestic affiliate of the international GS1 organization that sets standards for product labeling and identification. He takes over from Miguel Lopera, who had been doing double duty as CEO of both GS1 US and Brussels-based GS1, the parent organization. He will now concentrate on that position.

PDI, Inc. (Saddle River, NJ), the contract sales and commercialization provider, has appointed David Kerr as SVP, Business Development. Most recently, he had been SVP of Commercial Business at Endo Pharmaceuticals. He is replacing David Stievater, who has been named Senior Vice President of Product Development.

In its normal progression of elected officers, Shawn Burke, a regional VP for Coventry Health Care, Inc. (Kansas City MO) has become president of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (Alexandria, VA). Brian Sweet, who manages clinical pharmacy services at Wellpoint, Inc., is now president-elect.

Terry O’Neill is joining Blue Fin Group (Atlanta), a biopharma consulting organization, as principal consultant, where he will work on brand and patent vulnerabilities, parallel trade and importation, diversion detection and related global commercial-operations functions. His previous affiliations include Sanofi-Aventis, Xerox and State Street.

Michael Vorwerk is leaving his post as COO of LifeConEx (Plantation, FL), a joint venture between DHL and Lufthansa Air, to become president of Cargo Network Services Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the International Air Transportation Assn. Vorwerk had been with LifeConEx, which specializes in healthcare products logistics, since its founding in 2005.

Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, NC) has announced the appointment of Richard Pilnik as president of Innovex, a Quintiles Company. Innovex has approximately 7,500 professionals deployed across 17 markets, selling and supporting brands in various therapeutic areas in both primary and secondary care. Pilnik comes to Innovex from Eli Lilly, where he was group VP and chief marketing officer.

For the Printed Components Business of its Packaging Services segment, Catalent Pharma Solutions (Somerset, NJ) has hired David Guelzow as account director, and Kevin Tilley as account manager. Guelzow previously worked at Amcor Flexibles Healthcare; Tilley was at MeadWestvaco in both Healthcare Packaging and the Envelope Products Group. They report to Brian McCarthy, manager of business development.

AbelsonTaylor (Chicago), a leading healthcare advertising agency, has promoted Paul Tursky and Holly Wright from account supervisors to senior account supervisors, and Rich Campbell from senior account executive to account supervisor. In addition, William Long and Michelle Samenfeld have been promoted to senior account executive, Alison Gustafson has been rehired as a senior account executive.

The National Assn. of Chain Drug Stores (NACS; Alexandria, VA) has appointed two new staff members. Marc Schloss will be Director of Federal Government Affairs, and Stephen Schatz is the new Director of Media Relations. Schloss comes to NACDS from the Center for American Progress, and had previously been associated with the Democratic National Committee. Schatz has worked with several Republican congressmen, and has been media director for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Thomas Barker, former acting General Counsel at the Dept. of Health and Human Services, has joined the law firm of Foley Hoag LLP as partner in its Healthcare and Life Sciences practices. He will split his time between Washington and Boston offices, and will focus on federal legal and regulatory policies and general rulemaking.

Gary C. Wilson has been named to the newly created position of Technical Program Manager at SAFE-BioPharma Assn (Fort Lee, NJ), the nonprofit that manages digital identity and signature standards for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. He comes to SAFE-BioPharma from EMC Consulting Services. PC