Switch Biotech (Neuried, Germany) has announced the appointment of Erwin Böhm to the position of chief development officer. Dr. Böhm previously headed the clinical development department of MediGene, and from 1997 to 1999, he was head of clinical development for Merz.

US Genomics (Woburn, MA) has named Stephen P. DeFalco CEO and chairman of the board of directors. Before joining the company, Mr. DeFalco served as president of PerkinElmer Instruments and senior vice president of PerkinElmer, Inc.

Serono (Rockland, MA) has announced the appointment of Fereydoun Firouz as president of its US operations. Mr. Firouz was most recently Serono's executive vice president, reproductive health. He replaces the retiring Jean-Pierre Verhassel, who will retain his position as chairman of the board. In addition, Timothy Wells has been named senior executive vice president of research. Dr. Wells has been with the company as head of discovery since 1998. He replaces Silvano Fumero, who is retiring after a 30-year career with Serono.

Protein Design Labs (Fremont, CA) has announced the election of L. Patrick Gage to its board of directors. Dr. Gage previously served as president of Genetics Institute after its acquisition by Wyeth (then known as American Home Products) in 1997, and also headed Wyeth's global R&D operations for five years.

Pain Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA) has announced the appointment of Robert Gussin to the company's board of directors. Dr. Gussin worked at Johnson & Johnson for 26 years, most recently as chief scientific officer and corporate vice president, science and technology from 1986 through 2000. He replaces Gert Caspritz, a partner with Techno Venture Management.

Ken Haas

Protein Mechanics (Mountain View, CA) has appointed Ken Haas president, CEO, and a member of the board of directors. He was most recently CEO of startup Aulix Biopharma, and previously served for nine years as CEO of IntelliCorp, one of the first bioinformatics companies. Protein Mechanics' founding CEO, Michael Sherman, will remain with the company as executive vice president of R&D and will continue to serve on the board.

David C. Heimbrook

David C. Heimbrook has been named vice president, oncology research and global therapy area head, oncology at Roche (Nutley, NJ). Before joining the company, Dr. Heimbrook most recently held the positions of executive director and head of the department of cancer research at Merck Research Laboratories.

Joseph M. Limber has joined Deltagen (Redwood City, CA), assuming the positions of president, CEO, and board member. Mr. Limber was president and CEO of Aclara BioSciences from 1998 to 2002 and before that, he served as president and chief operating officer at Praecis Pharmaceuticals.

Stephen Marcus has been appointed senior vice president, proprietary pharmaceutical business development at IVAX Research (Miami, FL). He joined the company in October 1999 as vice president, oncology and biotechnology. Previously, he held senior clinical research positions with Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough Corporation, and Triton Biosciences.

SangStat Medical Corp. (Fremont, CA) has appointed Richard D. Murdock chairman, president, and CEO. Mr. Murdock has served as interim CEO since last fall, when he joined the company after serving as president, CEO, and director of Kyphon. He has served as a member of SangStat's board of directors since October 1993.

Lipomics Technologies (Sacramento, CA) has announced that Roger Salquist, co-founder and former managing director of Bay City Capital, has joined its board of directors. Prior to founding Bay City Capital, Dr. Salquist was chairman and CEO of Calgene until its acquisition by Monsanto in 1996.

Acadia Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA) has announced that Alan G. Walton, senior general partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners and chairman of Oxford Bioscience Corp., will join its board of directors. Oxford Bioscience Partners led a just-completed $25 million private placement of Acadia's preferred stock. Dr. Walton is currently chairman of the biotechnology companies Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Psychiatric Genomics, Endogeny Bio Corporation, and Asterand.