Lectus Therapeutics (Cambridge, UK) has announced the appointment of Edwin Moses (right) as nonexecutive chairman and Raymond G. Hill as a nonexecutive director to the company's board. Moses replaces Phil Gould, who has chaired the company since its inception in 2003 and is now pursuing other business commitments. Gould will remain on the board as an independent nonexecutive director.

Moses brings considerable experience to Lectus, being involved at the board level in over 15 European life science companies over the past 5 years. He has led two successful initial public offerings (IPOs) as CEO and two further IPOs as chairman. He is currently chairman and CEO of Ablynx. Hill has more than 30 years of scientific and commercial experience. Until April 2008, he served as executive director, licensing and external research (Europe) for Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories.

Patricia S. Andrews has been appointed to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Incyte (Wilmington, DE, USA). She was most recently vice president and general manager of Pfizer's US oncology business unit. Incyte also announced the recent resignation of John A. Keller, its executive vice president and chief business officer. Keller is leaving Incyte to join a major pharmaceutical company.

Marc D. Beer has been named chairman of TxCell's (Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, France) supervisory board. He joins the company from ViaCell, where he served as CEO since April 2000.

MediGene AG (Martinsried/Munich, Germany) has named Hans Joachim Bochtler as vice president clinical R&D. He succeeds Axel Mescheder, who was appointed executive board member for R&D in May 2008. Bochtler most recently served as chief scientific officer of Fresenius Biotech.

ThromboGenics (Leuven, Belgium) has announced that COO Patrik De Haes (right) will succeed Désiré Collen as the company's new CEO. De Haes will also be proposed as a member of the board of directors. Before joining ThromboGenics, he was head of the global insulin infusion business at Roche Diagnostics in Bern, Switzerland, and a member of the executive committee of Roche Diabetes Care.

Privately held Zafgen (Cambridge, MA, USA) has named Thomas Hughes CEO. Hughes was formerly vice president and global head, cardiovascular and metabolism disease area at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

MDRNA (Bothell, WA, USA) has named CEO J. Michael French to the additional position of president. He has also been elected to the company's board of directors. French joined MDRNA (formerly known as Nastech Pharmaceutical) as CEO in June. He was formerly senior vice president of corporate development at Sirna Therapeutics.

David Hsia has been named to the board of directors of Kinex Pharmaceuticals (Buffalo, NY, USA). Hsia was a co-founder and formerly senior vice president, scientific affairs of Watson Pharmaceuticals until his retirement.

Keith McCullagh has been appointed nonexecutive chairman of the board of directors of Affitech (Oslo). Previous chairman Oyvin Broymer will remain as a member of the Board. McCullagh was most recently CEO of Santaris Pharma.

Aradigm (Hayward, CA, USA) has appointed Nancy Pecota as its new CFO, replacing Norman Halleen, who has been serving as interim CFO since July 2007. Pecota has served as CFO for NuGen Technologies and as a financial consultant to early- and mid-stage life sciences companies.

Tengion (E. Norriton, PA, USA) has appointed Brian J.G. Pereira to its board of directors. Pereira is currently president and CEO of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, and a past president of the National Kidney Foundation.

Algenol Biofuels (Naples, FL, USA) has announced the appointments of Greg Schlicht as senior vice president of business development and general counsel and Dax Denman as senior program manager. Schlicht joins the company from VeraSun Energy where he was senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Denman was most recently senior project manager at Amgen.

James S. Scibetta has been appointed chairman of the board of medical device maker Nephros (New York). He is currently the CFO of Pacira Pharmaceuticals.

Jacqueline Shan, currently president, CEO and chief scientific officer of CV Technologies (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) will relinquish the position of CEO, the company announced. As CV's board of directors searches for a successor, Jack Moffatt will assume interim oversight responsibility for the company's day-to-day operations. Moffatt, who for the past several months has served in an advisory role, was appointed to the board of directors as its executive chair.

Genentech (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has named Morgan Sheng vice president, neuroscience, a newly created position. Sheng joins Genentech from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is Menicon Professor of Neuroscience at the Power Institute for Learning and Memory and RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center.

Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the addition of Claire Thom as senior vice president, portfolio management and Isabelle Mercier as vice president, marketing for the company's commercial organization. Thom joins Millennium with nearly 20 years of experience in drug development, new product planning and marketing at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Mercier served most recently as vice president of Taxotere marketing for Sanofi-Aventis.