Privately held Auspex Pharmaceuticals (La Jolla, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Pratik Shah (right) as president and CEO, transitioning from his prior role as executive chairman. He will continue as a director of Auspex and a partner at Thomas, McNerney & Partners. In addition, Bharatt Chowrira, most recently president & CEO of Addex Therapeutics, has been named COO of Auspex; board member Samuel Saks has been named chief development officer; and John Schmid, most recently co-founder and CFO at Trius Therapeutics, has joined the company as CFO.

“As we transition Auspex from an R&D-focused organization into a late-stage clinical development and commercial organization, we are indeed fortunate to have attracted such a distinguished group of entrepreneurs who each have a proven track record of building innovative life science companies and driving significant shareholder value,” says Shah.

Agios Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) has named Paul J. Clancy to its board of directors. He currently serves as executive vice president and CFO of Biogen Idec and was previously the company's senior vice president of finance.

Herb C. Cross (right) has joined KaloBios Pharmaceuticals (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) in the role of CFO, succeeding Jeffrey H. Cooper. Cross was previously CFO and vice president, finance of Affymax.

Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) has named Greg C. Garland to its board of directors. Garland is chairman, president and CEO of petrochemical giant Phillips 66. He will serve on the governance and nominating committee and the audit committee of the board.

Bone Therapeutics (Gosselies, Belgium) has announced the appointment of Wim Goemaere as CFO. Goemaere has over 25 years international business experience, most recently serving as CFO of Devgen, which was acquired by Syngenta in September 2012. Previously, he was CFO of the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology.

Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) has appointed as president and CEO 30-year industry veteran Jan Keltjens. He most recently served as chairman, president and CEO of Endosense, which was acquired by St. Jude Medical in August 2013. Previously, Keltjens was CEO and/or chairman at a number of medical device companies including CryoCath Technologies, AngioDynamics and Surpass Medical.

llumina (San Diego) has named Richard Klausner senior vice president and chief medical officer. Klausner was most recently managing partner of the venture capital firm The Column Group. He previously held roles as executive director for global health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and as the eleventh director of the National Cancer Institute between 1995 and 2001.

Vanessa Malier (right) has joined VC firm Kurma Partners (Paris) as a partner, bringing with her 15 years of experience in the biotech and pharma industries. Prior to joining Kurma, Malier was vice president, R&D strategic planning at Ipsen.

Jyrki Mattila has joined iCeutica (Philadelphia) as chief business officer. He brings over 25 years of business development and management experience, previously serving as president and CEO of LZ Therapeutics and executive vice president of business development, product development and technical operations at Auxilium Pharmaceutical.

Celladon (San Diego) has appointed Michael Narachi as chairman of the board of directors. Narachi currently serves as president and CEO of Orexigen Therapeutics. Previously he was chairman, CEO and president of Ren Pharmaceuticals.

Acorda Therapeutics (Ardsley, NY, USA) has appointed Michael Rogers as CFO. Rogers has 22 years of experience in the biopharma industry, most recently serving as CFO of BG Medicine. Outgoing Acorda CFO David Lawrence will now serve as chief of business operations, managing technical operations/manufacturing, project management, IT and facilities management.

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded last month to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C.Südhof for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic. The three discovered the molecular principles that govern how the cell organizes its transport system, delivering cargo to the right place at the right time. Rothman is professor and chairman in the department of cell Biology at Yale University; Schekman is a professor in the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Südhof became an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1991 and was appointed professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University in 2008. In addition, he was awarded a Lasker Prize in basic medical research in September.

Medac Pharma (Chicago) has announced the appointment of Terri Shoemaker as president and CEO. Shoemaker joins the company from InterMune, where she served as vice president of sales. Previously, she co-founded BioPharm Strategic Solutions, providing operational and strategic guidance for startup pharma and biotech organizations.

Miguel Sieler, former chairman and CEO of Bayer France, has been named CEO of Neovacs (Paris), replacing Guy-Charles Fanneau De La Horie.

Alan Trounson has resigned from his position as head of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM, San Francisco) to spend more time with his family. He joined CIRM in September 2007.