People on the Move-July/August

Biopharma Manufacturers

Transcept Pharmaceuticals (Point Richmond, CA) has appointed John Kollins as senior vice president and chief business officer. Previously, he was associated with Parnassus Partners, and before that, CEO of Oxigene. Transcept is developing neuroscience products, including its first FDA-approved product, Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate).

Nestor Molfino, MD, is now chief medical officer at KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (South San Francisco, CA), a monoclonal antibody developer. Previously, Molfino was VP, clinical development, at MedImmune (now AstraZeneca Biologics), and had a post at Otsuka Maryland Research Institute. KaloBios is developing treatments for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, asthma and oncology.

To manage quality assurance and regulatory affairs at its contract manufacturing facilities, Avrio Biopharmaceuticals (Irvine, CA) has appointed Laura Jones, PhD, JD, MS, as vice president of quality and regulatory affairs. Previously, she worked at Bayer Healthcare as director of quality assurance. Her PhD is from Louisiana State University.

XenoPort, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) has promoted Vincent Angotti to EVP, chief operating officer, from chief commercialization officer. Additionally, Gregory Bates, DVM, previously vice president of regulatory affairs, has been promoted to the role of senior vice president, regulatory affairs and quality. The company is also realigning its workforce, losing 18 positions in the process. XenoPort has one FDA-approved product, Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil), for neurological disorders, and has several other products in development for neuralgia, spasticity and Parkinson’s disease.

Robert Altman, PhD, is now chief commercial officer at Pinnacle Biologics (Bannockburn, IL), which specializes in licensing and acquiring drugs and devices for revitalization. Additionally, Sharon Ayd, PhD, has been appointed chief scientific officer. Altman was previously CEO of Marathon Pharmaceuticals, LLC; and Ayd was VP, global R&D at the One 2 One business unit of Hospira.

Biopharma Service Providers

Cadient Group (King of Prussia, PA) has promoted Will Reese and Bryan Hill as managing partner and chief technology officer, respectively. Reese has been the agency’s chief innovation officer, and Hill was SVP for global technology services. Both have been with the agency, a digital-marketing services firm, since its founding in 2002.

Claire Dobbs is now managing director at Euro RSCG Life UK (London), a unit of Havas Worldwide Health. She will be responsible for overall management of the London office. Previously, she was a managing director at PAN Advertising.

Systech International (Cranbury, NJ) has appointed David Harty as VP, responsible for the development and support of Systech’s cloud-based products and services. Previously, he worked at Siemens IT/Atos,VeriSign and Acsis.

BioStorage Technologies (Indianapolis, IN) has appointed Kristina Robson, PhD, as senior director of comprehensive solutions. She will be responsible for developing global policies for clinical sample management operations. Previously, she was the scientific director of Biopharma Services at EMD Millipore. Her PhD is from the University of Kansas.

Henry Ames has been promoted from a business development role to VP, strategy and business development at Sensitech (Beverly, MA). Sensitech, a unit of Carrier Corp., markets monitoring and recording equipment for temperature-sensitive shipping.

Palio (Saratoga Springs, NY) has made a number of appointments: Ed Decker has been promoted from financial operations manager to VP, director of financial services. Chau Ho goes from brand designer to senior brand designer. Uwe Tigor, MD, goes from SVP, chief medical officer, to EVP, chief medical officer. Palio, an inVentiv Health company, develops advertising and creative marketing services.

Idea Pharma (Cranfield, UK and New York) has appointed Dr. Graham Walker as a member of its IDEAtion team, which specializes in helping manufacturers move Phase II products to commercialization. Walker was previously at AstraZeneca.

AbelsonTaylor (Chicago) has made a number of appointments: Brook Badzin as account executive, from account coordinator; Laura Guarnieri as account supervisor, and Katy Kelnhofer as senior account executive, both joining the company from CAHG; Chad Bernstein as senior account executive, from account executive; Meredith Jolley as senior account executive, from account executive; and Beth Geren to account executive.