Privately held Elusys Therapeutics (Pine Brook, NJ, USA) has announced the appointment of Robert Gundel (right) as vice president of research. Gundel has held executive management positions at a number of biopharmaceutical companies including Bayer, Chiron and XOMA, and he was most recently chief scientific officer at ARIUS Research.

“As vice president of research, Bob will play a key role in helping to further develop and advance our corporate and scientific strategies. With more than 25 years of experience in developing monoclonal antibody–based products from both the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, Gundel will lead our existing R&D team to further the development of our antibody-based products for the treatment of infectious disease,” says Elusys president and CEO Elizabeth G. Posillico.

Mary L. Anderson (right) has been named vice president of business development at XOMA (Berkeley, CA, USA). She brings 20 years of experience in the pharma and biotech industry, most recently serving as executive director, global licensing and business development for oncology at Merck-Serono. Previously, she was senior director, corporate development at MorphoSys.

BioVascular (San Diego) has appointed Christopher M. Bussineau to the position of vice president of pharmaceutical operations and Eric Karpinski to the position of vice president, business development and nonvascular operations. Previously, Bussineau served as vice president and general manager of Cambrex Bio Science Baltimore and Karpinski was a venture capitalist with Forward Ventures.

Two former Trimeris executives, cofounder and CEO Dani Bolognesi and CFO Robert Bonczek, have founded B3bio (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA), a startup focused on RNA therapeutics. The new company is using a technology platform licensed from Duke University and the University of Texas and is based in the business incubator program at the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park.

Louis Drapeau and George Butler have been named to the board of directors of Bionovo (Emeryville, CA, USA). Drapeau is CFO of InSite Vision and previously served as CFO of Nektar Therapeutics. Butler has 30 years of experience in drug development and regulatory affairs, including heading the global regulatory affairs groups at AstraZeneca and Novartis.

Vaxart (San Francisco) has announced the appointment of Robert Fildes to its board of directors. Fildes was a founder and president of Biogen, and then went on to become CEO of Cetus. He is currently president of SB2, a biotech licensing company.

M. Scott Harris has joined Ocera Therapeutics (San Diego) as chief medical officer. He previously held the position of CMO and vice president of clinical affairs at Napo Pharmaceuticals.

Endo Pharmaceuticals (Chadds Ford, PA, USA) has named David P. Holveck as president, CEO and a member of the board of directors, replacing Peter A. Lankau. The move took place after Endo's largest shareholder, D.E. Shaw & Co., demanded in February that the company explore its strategic options, including a sale, before hiring a new CEO. Holveck, the former CEO of Centocor, retired in March as president of Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

Illumina (San Diego) has named Joel McComb as senior vice president and general manager of its life sciences business unit and Gregory F. Heath as senior vice president and general manager of its diagnostics business unit. McComb previously served as president of the interventional medicine business at GE Healthcare and Heath was most recently senior vice president of Roche Molecular Systems' global business unit.

Upfront Chromatography (Copenhagen) has appointed Søren Pedersen (right) as vice president of sales and marketing. He joins Upfront with significant global sales and marketing experience. Previously, at Superfos Pharma Pack, he was sales manager responsible for the Americas, and at Novozymes, he held positions as global marketing manager, food and nutrition, and senior strategic account manager.

Juvaris BioTherapeutics (Burlingame, CA, USA) has named Grant E. Pickering as CEO, replacing Martin D. Cleary, who founded the company in February 2003. Pickering also joins Juvaris' board of directors. Previously, he founded Pharmada and served as its president and CEO, as well as senior vice president of operations at Dendreon.

SYGNIS Pharma (Heidelberg, Germany) has appointed Frank Rathgeb to the newly created position of chief medical officer. Rathgeb has over 18 years of pharma experience, most recently as corporate vice president, R&D pipeline management and strategic controlling at Altana Pharma.

Martin P. Rosendale has been appointed to the newly created position of executive vice president and COO of Cytomedix (Rockville, MD, USA). Most recently, he was CEO of Core Dynamics, a biotech company specializing in cryopreservation technology.

Janet Woodcock has been named as director of the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). She assumed the role of acting director of CDER in October 2007. An internist and rheumatologist, Woodcock has held other leadership positions at the FDA, including deputy commissioner and chief medical officer, director, Office of Therapeutics Research and Review and acting deputy director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.