Saegis Pharmaceuticals (Half Moon Bay, CA, USA) has appointed Jean-Jacques Bienaime to its board of directors. Dr. Bienaime is chairman, CEO and president of Genencor International.

Barrier Therapeutics (Princeton, NJ, USA) has appointed Robert E. Campbell, Carl W. Ehmann and Charles F. Jacey, Jr. to its board of directors. Mr. Campbell retired from Johnson & Johnson after having served as vice chairman of the board of directors from April 1989 to January 1995. He is currently the chairman of the board of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Ehmann is a private pharmaceutical industry consultant and is a member of the Barrier scientific advisory board. Mr. Jacey is a retired senior partner of Coopers & Lybrand.

Laurent Condomine and Michel Picot have been appointed to the supervisory board of ExonHit Therapeutics (Paris). Mr. Condomine is currently vice president, business development at AstraZeneca, and Mr. Picot is currently chairman of Elektrim Telekomunikacja, Poland, and formerly executive vice president of Vivendi Telecom International.

Matthew W. Emmens has been elected to Vertex Pharmaceuticals' (Cambridge, MA, USA) board of directors. He currently serves as CEO and chairman of the executive committee of Shire Pharmaceuticals Group. Previous leadership positions include president, ethical pharmaceuticals at Merck KGaA and president and CEO at Astra Merck.

Geoffrey S. Ginsburg has been named director of the new Center for Genomic Medicine at Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP; Durham, NC, USA). He will also join the faculty in the department of medicine at Duke Medical Center. Dr. Ginsburg joins Duke from Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was vice president of molecular and personalized medicine.

Phenomix (San Diego, CA, USA) has named Hans-Peter Guler to the position of vice president of clinical development. Dr. Guler joins the company from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he served as vice presi- dent of clinical sciences. Past positions also include senior director of clinical development for Chiron Technologies and associate director of drug development at CIBA-GEIGY.

William K. Heiden has been appointed Elixir Pharmaceuticals' (Cambridge, MA, USA) president and CEO and a member of its board of directors. Mr. Heiden was most recently president and COO of Praecis Pharmaceuticals.

Cryptome Pharmaceuticals (Melbourne, Australia) has announced the appointment of Leodevico (Vic) Ilag as CSO. Dr. Ilag is the cofounder, former managing director and current chief technology officer of Munich-based Xerion Pharmaceuticals.

Michael D. Kishbauch has been named CEO of Achillion Pharmaceuticals (New Haven, CT, USA), replacing interim CEO Marios Fotiadis. Mr. Kishbauch most recently founded and served as president and CEO of OraPharma, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson.

Novagali Pharma (Évry, France) has promoted Jérôme Martinez from vice president, business development to chairman of the company, and has named Alain Munoz as president of its supervisory board. Dr. Munoz is a project management consultant in the healthcare sector.

CoTherix (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has named Donald J. Santel CEO. Mr. Santel previously served as the company's president and COO, and will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors. Additionally, Thomas Feldman has been promoted to president and chief business officer. Mr. Feldman joined CoTherix in 2003 as executive vice president and chief commercial officer.

XenoPort (Santa Clara, CA, USA) has named Pierre Tran senior vice president and chief medical officer of the company. Dr. Tran was previously global medical director of the antidepressant group at Eli Lilly and Company.

Lorus Therapeutics (Toronto, ON, Canada) has announced the appointment of Paul J. Van Damme as CFO. Mr. Van Damme previously served as vice president of finance at GlycoDesign and senior vice president, finance and CFO at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals.