OXiGENE (Waltham, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Peter J. Langecker as executive vice president and chief development officer. Langecker has more than 20 years of experience developing both drugs and biological products. He joins the company from Durect Corp. where he served as chief medical officer after previous stints at Schering-Plough, Coulter Pharmaceuticals, SUGEN and Intarcia Therapeutics.

“I am particularly excited to be joining OXiGENE,” says Langecker. “Their leading position in the field of vascular disrupting agents (VDAs), which represent an exciting potential therapy in the field of oncology, as well as the breadth of their product pipeline and the promising results Zybrestat and OXi4503 have shown to date in a variety of tumor types make this role particularly attractive. I am looking forward to helping guide these product candidates through the development process as I believe they will be valuable additions to the oncology armamentarium.”

Laura Agensky has been appointed vice president of clinical operations of Transition Therapeutics (Toronto). Since joining the company in 2001, Agensky has managed the execution of all clinical trials across a diverse set of disease indications including Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.

ViroPharma (Exton, PA, USA) has announced the appointment of Frank Baldino, Jr. to its board of directors. He previously served as a member of ViroPharma's board of directors from 1996 to 2006. Baldino is the founder, CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Cephalon.

Anavex Life Sciences (Geneva) has announced the appointment of Hervé de Kergrohen as CEO and director. He has over 25 years in senior and executive management positions, having held CEO, chairman or director roles with more than 12 companies in the US and Europe. In 2000, de Kergrohen cofounded Global Biomedical Partners, the asset management firm of International Biomedicine Holdings, a $400-million fund based in Basel, Switzerland.

Hemispherx Biopharma (Philadelphia) has appointed Robert Dickey IV as senior vice president, a newly created role that will bring together various activities relating to fundraising, strategic partnering and finance functions. Dickey combines over 12 years of experience in biotech senior management and an 18-year career as an investment banker. He has served as CFO, COO, CEO and board member at three biotech companies and as a managing director at Legg Mason.

J. Melville Engle, CEO of ThermoGenesis Corp. (Rancho Cordova, CA, USA), has been appointed to the company's board of directors, bringing the total number of directors to six. Engle has more than 30 years of management experience in the healthcare industry. He joined ThermoGenesis as CEO in April.

Stephen Fellows has been appointed vice president of finance of Generex Biotechnology (Worcester, MA, USA). He has approximately 20 years of experience in financial management and accounting reporting for both public and private companies, most recently at Sona Mobile Holdings where he served as CFO.

Alexander R. Giaquinto has been named to the board of directors of Protox Therapeutics (Vancouver, BC, Canada). Giaquinto is currently senior vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance at Regado Biosciences and acts as an independent consultant to several pharmaceutical companies. He currently serves on the board of directors for SemBioSys Genetics, Endoceutics and Biothera, as well as a member of the scientific advisory boards for Allozyne and EndoCeutics. Leaving the Protox board is Nitin Kaushal, who has served as a director since 2004.

Five Prime Therapeutics (San Francisco) has named Julia P. Gregory president, CEO and a member of the company's board of directors. From 2000 to 2008, she served as executive vice president and CFO of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, and prior to that she was an investment banker for over 20 years, primarily as head of healthcare and investment banking at Punk, Ziegel & Company and at Dillon, Read & Co. She succeeds Gail Maderis, who is stepping down for health reasons.

Lorianne Masuoka has been promoted to the position of chief medical officer at Nektar Therapeutics (San Carlos, CA, USA). She has over 15 years of experience in clinical R&D, most recently serving as vice president of clinical development at Five Prime Therapeutics. Masuoka joined Nektar in August 2008.

Oncothyreon (Seattle) has named Scott Peterson as vice president, R&D. He joins Oncothyreon from Zymogenetics where he served as director and department head, oncology research, since 2007. From 1999 until 2007 he held a variety of positions at ICOS, most recently as a principal scientist in oncology drug discovery.

H. Michael Shepard has joined Halozyme Therapeutics (San Diego) as vice president, discovery research. He brings over 25 years of experience in the biotech industry to Halozyme. At Genentech, Shepard led the team that discovered the breast cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab). He most recently founded and served as president of Receptor BioLogix.

Joseph Stauffer has joined Durect Corp. (Cupertino, CA, USA) as chief medical officer and executive vice president, corporate strategy. He served as chief medical officer and senior vice president of clinical research & medical affairs at Alpharma until its acquisition by King Pharmaceuticals earlier this year.

Synta Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA, USA) has named Vojo Vukovic senior vice president and chief medical officer, succeeding Eric Jacobson, who recently announced his resignation from the company. Vukovic was previously vice president, clinical research at Synta, a position he has held since January 2009.

Daniel O. Wilds has been elected executive chairman of Calcionics' (Bellevue, WA, USA) board of directors. He recently retired as CEO of SCOLR Pharma and previously served as chairman and CEO at Northwest Biotherapeutics, as CEO of Shiloov Biotechnologies (USA), as CEO of Adeza BioMedical and as CEO of Medisense.