CuraGen (New Haven, CT) has announced the appointment of Hovan Asdourian to the position of senior vice president of business development and head of its pharmaceutical business development team. Mr. Asdourian was previously senior national director of oncology sales for Rhône-Poulenc Rorer.

Walter Gilbert has been named to Transkaryotic Therapies' (Cambridge, MA) board of directors. Dr. Gilbert has been a member of TKT's scientific advisory board since 1993. He received the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and presently holds the Carl M. Loeb University Professorship at Harvard University.

CIStem Molecular Corp. (San Diego, CA) has announced the appointment of Mary E. Harper as chief scientific officer. Dr. Harper was previously vice president of R&D at Desmos and vice president, research at Introgen Therapeutics.

Abgenix (Fremont, CA) has appointed Gregory Landes vice president, product discovery. Dr. Landes was most recently vice president, genetics and genomics at Genzyme.

John P. McKearn, vice president, discovery research at Pharmacia Corp., has been appointed to the board of directors of Epimmune (San Diego, CA). Dr. McKearn assumes the board seat previously held by Nancy Rasmussen, vice president, US marketing at Pharmacia.

Biogen (Cambridge, MA) has announced that James C. Mullen has been named president and CEO, succeeding James L. Vincent, who will continue as chairman of the board. Mr. Mullen, who joined Biogen in 1989, has served as president and COO since last year.

Tina S. Nova has been named president and CEO of DNA Dynamics (Del Mar, CA). Most recently, Dr. Nova served as president, COO, and a member of the board of directors of Nanogen.

Novavax (Columbia, MD) has named Denis M. O'Donnell chairman, replacing Ronald H. Walker, who remains on the board. Mr. O'Donnell is a general partner at Seaside Advisors, a private equity limited partnership. Novavax has also appointed James R. Mirto to the newly created position of senior vice president and COO. Mr. Mirto previously served at Ligand Pharmaceuticals.

Oxagen (Oxford, UK) has named Chris Rawlings director of bioinformatics. Dr. Rawlings joins the company from SmithKline Beecham, where he served as UK director of bioinformatics. Oxagen also announced the appointment of Christine Soden as CFO. She was most recently CFO of Celltech Chiroscience.

OSI Pharmaceuticals (Uniondale, NY) has elected Sir Mark Richmond to its board of directors. Currently a senior fellow at University College, London, Sir Mark previously served as the head of research and special assignments, research directorate at Glaxo Research & Development from 1993 to 1996. From 1981 to 1990, he was the vice chancellor of the University of Manchester, and in 1990 was appointed chairman of the UK Science and Engineering Research Council.

Kevin W. Sharer has been named CEO of Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA), succeeding the retiring Gordon M. Binder. Sharer will also remain president. Binder plans to retire as chairman and a director by December 31, at which point Sharer will become chairman. Amgen also announced that Steven M. Odre has been named senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, succeeding George A. Vandeman. Odre was previously vice president, intellectual property and associate general counsel.

Mark Skaletsky has been named to ImmunoGen's (Cambridge, MA) board of directors. Mr. Skaletsky has been president and CEO of GelTex Pharmaceuticals since 1993.

Genset (Paris) announced that John Varian has joined the company as CFO. John was formerly senior vice president of finance and administration at Elan Pharmaceuticals, and vice president and CFO of Neurex.

Raven Biotechnologies (San Carlos, CA) has announced the appointments of Gordon A. Vehar as vice president, R&D and Donald W. Perryman as vice president and chief business officer. Dr. Vehar has spent the past 20 years at Genentech, where he held a variety of positions, including director of the cardiovascular research department. Mr. Perryman comes to Raven from Rigel, where he was vice president of business development from the company's inception until filing its initial public offering.