Halozyme Therapeutics (San Diego) has named Jonathan Leff (right) vice president and chief medical officer. He was previously vice president and global head of inflammation clinical development at Roche, managing the worldwide clinical and registration phase of development for MabThera/Rituxan, ocrelizumab and Actemra. From 2002 to 2007, Leff served as Amgen's vice president, North American medical affairs.

“Dr. Jonathan Leff is a highly accomplished leader with a proven track record of successfully developing and commercializing large and small molecules across a broad range of therapeutic areas,” says Jonathan Lim, Halozyme's president and CEO. “This latest addition to the leadership team is indicative of Halozyme's strong commitment and ability to attract some of the best and brightest talent in the biopharmaceutical industry.”

Meirav Chovav has joined Nucleix (Tel Aviv) as vice president of strategic affairs and as a member of the board of directors. From 1993–2004, she led coverage of the biotech/life science sector as an equity research analyst with UBS, Credit Suisse First Boston and Salomon Smith Barney (Citigroup).

XenoPort (Santa Clara, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Dennis M. Fenton to its board of directors. Fenton has served more than 25 years at Amgen, most recently as executive vice president responsible for worldwide operations, manufacturing, process development and quality. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Amira Pharmaceuticals, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals and CytomX Therapeutics.

James W. Fordyce has been elected to the board of directors of Ore Pharmaceuticals (Gaithersburg, MD, USA). He is currently managing partner of MEDNA Partners, a private advisory firm, and from 1981 to 2004, he was a general partner of Prince Ventures. He is currently a member of the board of Dyax and several privately held companies.

Illumina (San Diego) has named Christian Henry senior vice president of corporate development. In addition to the newly created role, Henry will continue in his current position of CFO until a replacement is selected.

Ronald B. Herberman has been named chief medical officer, oncology, at privately held Intrexon (Blacksburg, VA, USA). Herberman was founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and associate vice chancellor for cancer research, Hillman professor of oncology and professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Oncodesign Biotechnology (Dijon, France) has named Jan Hoflack as vice president, drug discovery. He was previously vice president, medicinal chemistry and biosciences at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D located in Beerse, Belgium.

DxS (Manchester, UK) has announced the appointment of David Jackson as vice president of business development and licensing. Jackson was most recently executive vice president at Response Genetics. In addition, DxS has named Dave Clennell director of quality. Before joining the company, he served as international director of quality for Lombard Medical Technologies.

T. Scott Johnson has joined The Medicines Company (Parsippany, NJ, USA) as vice president, new business ventures and chief medical advisor, and has resigned as a director. He has been a director of the company since its inception in September 1996. Johnson has been a partner at Gilliam Capital and JSB Partners.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has announced that Helen S. Kim has been appointed to its board of directors. She is currently a director and CEO of privately held TRF Pharma.

Gilead Sciences (Foster City, CA, USA) has appointed Kevin E. Lofton to its board of directors. Lofton is currently president and CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives and previously served as CEO of two university hospitals, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital and Howard University Hospital.

Alan Marion has been appointed vice president and medical director of ICON Development Solutions (Dublin) at the company's new clinical pharmacology unit in Omaha, Nebraska. Marion joins ICON from MDS Pharma Services, where he was a principal investigator on over 250 phase 1 studies.

Microbia (Lexington, MA, USA) has named John A. McCarthy Jr. (right) senior vice president, corporate strategy and chief financial officer (CFO). He brings 17 years of executive management experience, most recently as executive vice president and CFO of Verenium. Previously, he served as senior vice president and CFO for Xanthus Pharmaceuticals.

Adriann Sax has joined Symphogen (Copenhagen) as chief business officer. Sax most recently served as executive vice president, corporate strategy, strategic marketing and alliances at King Pharmaceuticals.

VistaGen Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Shawn K. Singh as CEO. Singh was managing principal of Cato BioVentures, one of VistaGen's largest institutional investors, and also served as chief business officer, president, CEO or chairman of five different biopharmaceutical companies.

ImmunoGen (Waltham, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Peter Williams as vice president, business development. Before joining the company, Williams served as senior director of business development at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Joseph E. Zack has joined Metabolon (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA) as senior vice president of diagnostics. He was most recently executive vice president, marketing and sales for Orasure Technologies.