Genzyme has appointed Ron Branning as its senior vice president (SVP) of global product quality, giving him responsibility for resolving the biotechs manufacturing difficulties.
Before joining Genzyme Branning held a similar position at Gilead Sciences. He has also worked at Genentech, Aventis Behring and Somatogen (Baxter) over the course of his 30-year career in the pharma industry.
Anthony Celeste has been appointed as North America regulatory affairs advisor at ISPE. Celeste worked at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 25 years, culminating in him serving as director of the Office of Regional Operations.
He left the agency in 1985 and became president and CEO of AAC Consulting Group. Following Kendle’s acquisition of AAC in 2001 Celeste became SVP of regulatory affairs at the contract research organisation (CRO).
Acetylon Pharmaceuticals has named John van Duzer as VP chemistry and manufacturing and Simon Jones as VP biology and preclinical development after receiving a $2m (€1.38m) investment.
Before joining Acetylon van Duzer worked at Mersana Therapeutics. He has also held positions at ActivBiotics, Inotek, Ciba-Geigy and Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Jones joins Acetylon from EPIX Pharmaceuticals and has also worked at ArQule, Curis and Creative BioMolecules.
Robert Roche will resign on February 5 as executive VP (EVP) of worldwide pharmaceutical operations at Cephalon to pursue other longstanding interests. Cephalon will release details of plans for leadership and the commercial organisation in the near future.
Biogen Idec has named Francesco Granata as EVP of global commercial operations. In addition Tom Kingsley has been appointed SVP of US commercial operations and Frederick Munschauer will take the role of VP of US medical affairs.
Olav Hellebø has been appointed as CEO of Clavis Pharma. Hellebø joins Clavis from UCB Pharma and has also worked at Novartis and Schering Plough.