Makefield Therapeutics (Newtown, PA, USA) has announced the appointment of Jim Ballance (right) as CSO. Most recently a corporate strategic consultant to the biotech industry, Ballance brings more than 20 years of experience in the development and manufacturing of novel therapeutics. His experience includes such positions as vice president, technology development at BioRexis Pharmaceutical, director of biotech evaluation at Aventis Behring, chief technology officer at Genesis Therapeutics and head of R&D at Delta Biotechnology.

Inovio Biomedical (San Diego) has named Mark L. Bagarazzi as chief medical officer. Bagarazzi joins Inovio from Merck & Co., where he was director of worldwide regulatory affairs for vaccines and biologics. Before joining Merck in 2001, he was director of the HIV/AIDS program for St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

IRX Therapeutics (New York) has named Neil L. Berinstein CSO, succeeding company founder John W. Hadden, who remains a member of the board of directors. Berinstein previously served as assistant vice president and global program leader at Sanofi Pasteur, where he was in charge of leading the development of the company's cancer vaccines both strategically and operationally.

Genzyme (Cambridge, MA, USA) has named Ron Branning as its new senior vice president of global product quality. Branning is tasked with ensuring the quality of all Genzyme products manufactured at 17 sites around the world. He brings 30 years of experience in product quality and regulatory affairs at biotech and pharma companies including Johnson & Johnson, Gilead Sciences and Genentech as well as companies acquired by Baxter, Wyeth and Pfizer.

Ian Brown has been named CEO of BioCeramic Therapeutics (London) as part of a succession plan developed by the board of directors to succeed the company's outgoing founding CEO, Daniel Green. Brown has held senior executive positions with Chromogenix (previously Kabi Pharmacia), Instrumentation Laboratory, Cordlife, SDP Technology and Avanti Capital. Green will remain as a company director.

CombinatoRx (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced changes to its senior management team following its recently completed merger with Neuromed. Mark Corrigan, former executive vice president of R&D at Sepracor and a member of the CombinatoRx board of directors, will assume the role of president and CEO of CombinatoRx and Christopher Gallen, former CEO of Neuromed, will serve as executive vice president of R&D. CombinatoRx's interim president and CEO Robert Forrester has decided to leave his position at the company to pursue other opportunities.

Roger Hickling has been appointed R&D director and a board director at Phytopharm (Godmanchester, UK). He previously worked at SmithKline Beecham where he oversaw both in-house and partnered early stage neuroscience development projects, and was most recently R&D director and a board member at Alizyme Therapeutics.

Prana Biotechnology (Melbourne, Australia) has named Paul Marks as a director of the company. Marks was previously vice president of foreign exchange with Prudential-Bache Securities and senior FX strategist with National Australia Bank. He also serves as director of Conquest Mining and several private companies.

BIND Biosciences (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Scott Minick as president and CEO. Minick was formerly a managing director at ARCH Venture Partners and previously president and COO of Sequus Pharmaceuticals/Liposome Technology.

Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced that James Mullen will retire as president and CEO as of June 8. Mullen will also retire from Biogen's board at the end of his current term as a director at the company's 2010 annual shareholder meeting. The company has started a search for Mullen's successor.

CrystalGenomics (Seoul, S. Korea) has chosen Eric M. Nelson to serve as vice president of business development for its US subsidiary, Emeryville, California-based CG Pharmaceuticals. Nelson brings 22 years of experience in business development and licensing for pharma and biotech companies. Most recently, he was global head of business development at Advinus Therapeutics.

Proteonomix (Mountainside, NJ, USA) has announced the following management changes: Joel Pensley has resigned as secretary, director and general counsel and Roger Fidler has joined the company as director and general counsel; and Steven Byle, presently a director, has assumed the role of secretary. Pensley resigned as an officer and director due to health concerns. Fidler has been the sole director, president, CEO and CFO of Global Agri-Med Technologies.

Eric Ruby has joined Presidio Pharmaceuticals (San Francisco) as vice president of regulatory affairs. He served previously as senior director, regulatory affairs at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for regulatory filings to support clinical trials in the US and Europe.

Protagen (Dortmund, Germany) has appointed two new members to its executive board: Peter Schulz-Knappe, former CSO at Proteome Sciences, will head the company's diagnostics business unit, and co-founder and COO Martin Blüggel will manage the protein services unit.

Pieris (Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany) has announced the appointment of Stephen S. Yoder (right) as CEO. He succeeds interim CEO and co-founder Claus Schalper, who will remain CFO. Yoder joins Pieris from MorphoSys, where he served as general counsel and head of licensing & IP.