Credit: Astrid Magenau for ComBio2007

Fritz Bach (right), a noted expert in xenotransplantation, died of cardiac arrest on August 14 in his home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Bach was born in Vienna in 1934 and attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. His research took him to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Harvard Medical School. Among his achievements was describing the mixed leukocyte culture test for matching donors and recipients for transplantation, which led to his contributing to the description of the major histocompatibility complex in humans. He also headed the team that performed the first successful matched bone marrow transplant. Recently, he researched ways to transplant pig organs to humans as a way to alleviate the chronic shortage of organ donors, though he advised caution in proceeding, and urged that the public—not just experts—be involved in making policy decisions.

Prana Biotechnology (Melbourne) has elected Lawrence Gozlan to the company's board of directors. Gozlan is the founder and chief investment officer of Scientia Capital. Previously, he was responsible for the largest biotech investment portfolio in Australia as the institutional biotech analyst at the Queensland Investment Corporation.

Numira Biosciences (Salt Lake City) has announced the appointment of William M. Harrison to its board of directors. He currently serves as CEO of VIDA Sciences and previously held a number of senior management positions at MPI Research, including president and COO.

Tengion (E. Norriton, PA, USA) has named Diane Jorkasky, currently senior vice president, clinical development and chief medical officer at Endo Pharmaceuticals, to its board of directors. Tengion also announced that Brenda Gavin, managing partner at Quaker BioVentures, is stepping down from the Tengion board after five years of service.

George W. Kemble has been appointed CSO of 3-V Biosciences (Menlo Park, CA, USA). Before joining the company, he served as senior vice president of R&D and head of research at MedImmune.

Creabilis (Luxembourg) has announced the expansion of its senior management team. Alex Leech joins the company as vice president, head of finance and operations, James Sandy joins as senior vice president, head of development, and Peter Spargo has been named senior vice president for chemistry manufacturing and controls. Leech was most recently head of operations at Solace Pharmaceuticals, and he was previously at Pfizer. Sandy has over 25 years of pharma development R&D experience, most recently as development team leader of Pfizer's gastrointestinal portfolio. Spargo was most recently a senior vice president at Novexel.

CorMedix (Bridgewater, NJ, USA) has named Steven W. Lefkowitz to the company's board of directors. Lefkowitz is currently president and founder of Wade Capital and holds board positions in both publicly traded and privately held companies.

Charles Mather has been appointed to the board of directors of specialty pharma Tonix Pharmaceuticals (New York). Mather is currently a managing director in the investment banking group at Janney Capital Markets, and co-heads the equity capital markets group.

Planet Biopharmaceuticals (Liberty, MO, USA) has announced the appointment of Theron (Ted) E. Odlaug as executive chairman and CEO. He replaces William (Bill) Goldberg, who has joined MediMedia USA as CEO. Goldberg will remain on Planet's board of directors as an independent director. Odlaug was most recently president and CEO of CyDex Pharmaceuticals.

Akrimax Pharmaceuticals (Cranford, NJ, USA) has named Donald C. Olsen as president. Olsen has over 30 years of pharma industry experience, most recently as executive vice president at Cempra Pharmaceuticals. Before that he was at the Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Group.

Jonathan Pachter has been appointed vice president and head of research at Verastem (Boston). He previously served as head of cancer biology at OSI Pharmaceuticals.

Craig C. Parker has joined Human Genome Sciences (Rockville, MD, USA) as senior vice president, strategy and corporate development. He was most recently CEO and co-founder of Vega Therapeutics, and before that was senior vice president of corporate development and finance and CFO of Proteolix, which was acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals in 2009.

John A. Sedor has been named president, CEO and a member of the board of directors of Cangene (Toronto). Michael Graham, who had been serving as interim president and CEO during the search process, will continue in his regular role as CFO. Sedor most recently served as president, CEO and a director of CPEX Pharmaceuticals.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals (Aliso Viejo, CA, USA) has named Joao Siffert to the position of senior vice president of R&D, a newly created role. Siffert previously served as vice president and chief medical officer at Ceregene.

Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (Malvern, PA, USA) has promoted James P. Tursi to the position of chief medical officer. Tursi joined Auxilium in March 2009. Previously he served as a medical director at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals and was responsible for medical affairs at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals' cancer vaccines unit.

FivePrime Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has named founder Lewis “Rusty” Williams as CEO, succeeding Julia Gregory, who is departing after two years. Williams founded FivePrime in 2002 after leaving Chiron, where he was CSO and a board member.