Xencor (Monrovia, CA, USA) has named Jeffrey D. Bloss (right) chief medical officer. Bloss has more than 15 years of clinical practice and R&D experience, most recently as vice president of clinical development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he served as group medical director at Genentech.

“Xencor's unique approach to antibody Fc engineering has demonstrated promising results with safety and potency in preclinical studies,” says Dr. Bloss. “I am delighted to join the company at this exciting stage and look forward to being a part of a team that is dedicated to the development of superior antibody therapeutics that provide better treatment options for patients with cancer and inflammatory conditions.”

Oxford Genome Sciences (Oxford, UK) has announced the appointment of Walter Bodmer to its scientific advisory board. He is currently head of the cancer and immunogenetics laboratory in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, and previously served as director general of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Neuren (Auckland, New Zealand) has announced the departure of its CEO, David Clarke, at year's end. Parmjot Bains, the company's current COO, will be CEO of Neuren's Australian and New Zealand business unit, and executive vice president Larry Glass will be president and CEO of US operations.

Theraptosis (Paris) has named Olivier Chesnoy as CEO and chairman of the board. The appointment allows Etienne Jacotot, cofounder of Theraptosis, to focus fully on his duties as CSO. Chesnoy comes to Theraptosis from Fournier Pharmaceutical, where he served in a variety of roles, most recently as general manager of Fournier Spain.

Francis S. Collins has been named as one of the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the USA's highest civil award. Collins is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. He led the successful effort to complete Human Genome Project, which resulted in a working draft of the human genome sequence being announced in June 2000, an initial analysis published in February 2001 and a high-quality, reference sequence completed in April 2003.

Julian Cooper and Ian Collins have been unanimously appointed to the advisory board of LUX biotechnology (Edinburgh). Cooper joins the board following a successful career at management and board level at Amersham and GE Healthcare. Collins brings 19 years experience and knowledge of the oil and gas sector to the advisory board, following a career with BP. He has authored or coauthored over 80 technical publications and has 28 patents as an inventor.

Alex M. DePaoli has joined privately held InteKrin Therapeutics (Los Altos, CA, USA) as chief medical officer. He joins the company after more than 16 years of experience in the diabetes and obesity field, at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute at later at Amgen where he built the company's metabolic disease area and directed the leptin program.

Eden Biodesign (Liverpool, UK) has named Roger Lias president of Eden Biodesign, USA. Lias joins the company from Cytovance Biologics, where he held the position of vice president, sales and business development. Other positions include business development roles at KBI BioPharma, Diosynth and Lonza Biologics.

Kevin G. Lokay (right) has been named president and CEO of Cytogen (Princeton, NJ, USA), replacing Michael D. Becker who has resigned as an officer and director to pursue another executive position. Lokay has served on Cytogen's board of directors for the past six years and brings more than 26 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to Cytogen's executive management team. He was most recently vice president and head of GlaxoSmithKline's oncology and acute care business unit. He joined SmithKline Beecham (GSK's predecessor) in 1997, as vice president and director, oncology and specialty products.

Helicos BioSciences (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Ronald Lowy to the company's board of directors. Lowy is the former president and CEO of Fisher Biosciences, a division of Fisher Scientific. Previously, he was president of global connectivity solutions for ADC Telecommunications.

David W.J. McGirr has joined the board of directors of LifeCell (Branchburg, NJ, USA) and will also serve as chairman of the audit committee. McGirr has served as senior vice president and CFO at Cubist Pharmaceuticals since November 2002.

Privately held Zogenix (Emeryville and San Diego, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Stephen J. Peroutka as chief medical officer. He previously served as vice president of clinical research at Deltagen, president and CEO of Synergia Pharma and was most recently franchise development leader for pain at Johnson & Johnson.

NextGen Sciences (Cambridgeshire, UK) has appointed Mike Pisano (right) as CEO. He joins the company from Proteomic Research Services, which was acquired by the NextGen Group in November 2006, where he was cofounder and CEO. Previous positions include group leader, proteomics and protein production at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer; head, protein sciences at Aventis; and vice president of proteomics R&D at Genomic Solutions.

Medarex (Princeton, NJ, USA) has announced the appointment of Marc Rubin to its board of directors. Rubin is president and CEO of Titan Pharmaceutical and was previously head of global R&D for Bayer Schering Pharma and a member of the executive committee of Bayer Healthcare.