Translate Bio (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Ann Barbier (right) as chief medical officer. Barbier brings nearly 20 years of drug discovery and development experience to the position, having most recently served as vice president of clinical development, rare genetic diseases, at Agios Pharmaceuticals. She spent seven years at Shire, most recently as global clinical development lead and senior medical director, where she worked on a variety of rare genetic diseases including lysosomal storage diseases and hereditary angioedema.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Barbier to Translate Bio,” said CEO Ronald Renaud. “She is a proven leader with a track record of advancing clinical research through all phases of development. Additionally, her rare disease expertise and extensive experience engaging regulatory agencies make her an invaluable asset as we look ahead to initiating our first clinical study in cystic fibrosis in early 2018.

BioAtla (San Diego) has announced the appointments of James Allison and Padmanee Sharma as scientific advisors. Allison is chair of the department of immunology, the Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology, director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Research, and executive director of the immunotherapy platform at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Sharma is professor of genitourinary medical oncology and immunology in the Division of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson, and scientific director, immunotherapy platform, and co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

NeuroVive Pharmaceutical (Lund, Sweden) has announced the resignation of Gregory Batcheller as chairman of the board. Batcheller is one of NeuroVive's largest shareholders and had served as executive chair for the past 17 years, guiding it from a private company through its listing on the Aktietorget stock exchange, and its uplisting to the Stockholm NASDAQ Small Cap. His successor, David Laskow-Pooley, has been on the NeuroVive board since 2016. He co-founded Pharmafor, serves as the CEO and member of the board at London Pharma, and is vice president of product development at Q BioMed.

Mike Burgess has been named president of research and development at clinical-stage immuno-oncology company Turnstone Biologics (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and New York). He joins the company from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was senior vice president of development across multiple therapeutic areas.

Glyn Edwards (right) has joined the board of drug delivery company OxSonics Limited (Oxford, UK) as non-executive director. He has held the position of CEO of Summit since April 2012. Prior to joining Summit, Edwards served as interim CEO of the UK's BioIndustry Association and as CEO at Antisoma.

Illumina (San Diego) has appointed Gary S. Guthart to its board of directors. Guthart is president and CEO of Intuitive Surgical, and was formerly part of the core team developing the foundational technology for computer-enhanced surgery at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute). He served as a member of the board of directors of Affymetrix from 2009 until its acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2016.

Robert W. Karr has been elected as a non-executive director of Verseon (Fremont, CA, USA). He had been a member of the company's scientific advisory board, holding a range of senior management roles in the pharma and biotech industry, including senior vice president of R&D strategy at Pfizer, president of Idera Pharmaceuticals, and vice president of R&D strategy for Warner-Lambert and G.D. Searle.

Concept Life Sciences (Manchester, UK) has appointed Philip Payne as chief commercial officer. Payne has 27 years' experience in business development in an international environment. He joins Concept from Aptuit, where he held various roles, including vice president of sales. Previously, he was business development director Europe and Asia for sterile technologies at Catalent Pharma Solutions, and pharmaceutical business development director with Reading Scientific Services.

Privately held Topas Therapeutics (Hamburg, Germany) has announced the appointment of Rupert Sandbrink to the newly created position of chief development officer and chief medical officer. Sandbrink has nearly 20 years of experience spanning all stages of clinical development, regulatory and medical affairs, and pharmacovigilance. He was most recently executive vice president, multiple sclerosis/neurology & immunology at Forward Pharma. Before that, he worked for many years at Bayer and Schering, departing as Bayer's vice president, head experimental medicine women's health & common mechanism research.

Clinical-stage Spruce Biosciences (San Francisco) has announced that Camilla V. Simpson has joined its board of directors. Simpson is senior vice president and head of product portfolio development at BioMarin Pharmaceutical. She was previously group vice president of regulatory affairs at BioMarin.

Aprecia Pharmaceuticals (Cincinnati) has named Timothy Tracy CEO, effective January 2018. Tracy currently serves as the provost for the University of Kentucky, a position he will maintain through the end of 2017. In addition, he is a Fellow with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Current CEO Don Wetherhold will stay with Aprecia, moving to the role of advisor to the chairman in 2018.

Cristal Therapeutics (Maastricht, The Netherlands) has named Istvan Udvaros chief medical officer, with responsibility for the clinical strategy and development of the company's range of nanomedicines, as well as regulatory and medical affairs activities. Udvaros replaces previous CMO Edwin Klumper. He joins Cristal from SGS Clinical Research, where he held the roles of executive medical director and project director of oncology.