MetaMorphix (Baltimore, MD) has announced that John R. Block and Gerald Welch have joined the company's board of directors. Mr. Block is president of Food Distributors International and was formerly US Secretary of Agriculture from 1981 to 1986. Mr. Welch was an executive vice president with The Upjohn Co. until 1994.

Janice Bourque has been named president and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (Cambridge, MA). She joined the council in 1992, and was most recently executive director.

Oxford Glycosciences (London) has announced the appointment of two directors: Donald Drakeman, president and chief executive of Medarex, and James Hill, senior vice president of corporate affairs at SmithKline Beecham. The company also announced the resignation of Paul Triniman as finance director, and the appointment of John Ilett as legal director and company secretary. Mr. Ilett is general counsel at British Biotech.

Stephan Lawton, a senior partner in the law firm of Hogan and Hartson, has been named vice president of regulatory affairs and general counsel for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (Washington, DC). Mr. Lawton is a former chief counsel of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Health and Environment.

Jonathan S. Leff has been appointed to the board of directors of Transkaryotic Therapies (Cambridge, MA). Mr. Leff is currently managing director at E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co. Also, Thomas J. Schuetz has been appointed to the newly created position of vice president, clinical affairs at TKT.

Nereus Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA) has named G. Kenneth Lloyd as chief scientific officer and Donald Salz as vice president of finance and administration. Dr. Lloyd most recently held the position of vice president of biology at SIBIA Neurosciences, whereas Mr. Salz was a manager in the health care group at Arthur Andersen.

Norton Peet has been named vice president of discovery alliances for ArQule (Woburn, MA), a newly created position. Most recently, Dr. Peet served as US head of medicinal chemistry at Aventis.

Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Richmond, CA) has appointed Leonard E. Post senior vice president, R&D. Dr. Post served most recently as vice president, biologicals, at the former Parke-Davis division of Warner-Lambert, which was recently acquired by Pfizer.

Gary Rogers has been promoted to senior vice president, pharmaceutical research at Cortex Pharmaceuticals (Irvine, CA). Dr. Rogers was formerly vice president, pharmaceutical discovery, a position he had held since joining Cortex in 1995.

CuraGen (New Haven, CT) has announced the appointment of M. Scott Salka as president and CEO of 454 Corporation, a majority-owned technology subsidiary of CuraGen. Mr. Salka was most recently president and CEO of Arcaris.

S. George Simon has been named Myriad Genetics' (Salt Lake City, UT) vice president of business development. He comes to the company from MorphoGen Pharmaceuticals, where he held the position of vice president, corporate development.

Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (Boulder, CO) has announced the promotions of Nassim Usman, head of the research organization and a corporate officer, to vice president of R&D, and Lawrence M. Blatt, research vice president of biopharmacology and preclinical research, to vice president of research and corporate officer.

Christine A. White has been promoted to vice president, clinical oncology and hematology, at IDEC Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA). She joined IDEC in June 1996 as a senior director, clinical oncology and hematology.

DNA Sciences (Mountain View, CA) has named Raymond White as chief scientific officer. Dr. White is chairman of the Department of Oncological Sciences and founding director of science at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Quintiles Transnational Corp. (Research Triangle Park, NC) has announced the following appointments: Ron Wooten has been named senior vice president, finance, Quintiles Transnational. He succeeds James Bierman, who is now the company's CFO. Barry Zimmerman has been appointed senior vice president, business development, of Innovex Americas. Finally, Charles H. “Rusty” Beardsley has been named vice president of sales and marketing for Quintiles Informatics.