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Margaret Hamburg (left) has announced her resignation as Erik Nordkamp has been named the new commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, effective managing director and head of global inno- this month. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed vative pharmaceutical business for UK by the US Senate in May 2009, she is one of the longest-serving (Tadworth, UK). He replaces Jonathan Emms, FDA commissioners in the modern era, overseeing public health who was appointed global marketing lead for initiatives ranging from tobacco control and food safety to Pfizer’s global established pharmaceutical busi- personalized medicine and drug approvals. Under Hamburg, the ness. Nordkamp joined Pfizer in 2010, and pre- agency introduced multiple measures to speed new products to the viously worked with Pfizer Greece, Cyprus and market. Fifty-one new drugs were approved in 2014, the most in Malta. almost 20 years. FDA chief scientist Stephen Ostroff will serve as interim commissioner until a permanent successor is named. Mayo Pujols has been appointed vice president, manufacturing for cancer immunotherapies developer Advaxis (Princeton, NJ, USA). He ZS Pharma (Coppell, TX, USA) has named Deirdre Connelly. She will be succeeded by brings to Advaxis more than 22 years of experi- Martin Babler to its board of directors. Jack Bailey, who was most recently senior vice ence in global commercial and clinical manu- Babler currently serves as CEO of Principia president for policy, payers and vaccines. The facturing and product development strategy. Biopharma, and he was previously president change is effective immediately. Most recently, Pujols served as executive direc- and CEO of Talima Therapeutics. tor, technical operations for Merck, Sharp & Armetheon (Menlo Park, CA, USA) has Dohme, the UK subsidiary of Merck & Co. Laguna Pharmaceuticals (La Jolla, CA, USA), named John (Jack) F. Glenn as CFO. Glenn previously known as ChanRx, has named Bob brings 25 years of healthcare industry experi- Nabriva Therapeutics (Vienna) has Baltera as its new CEO. Baltera led Amira ence, most recently serving as CFO of publicly announced the appointment of Charles Pharmaceuticals until its $475-million acqui- traded Solta Medical, and CFO, vice president Rowland to its board of directors and Steven sition by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2011. of finance, treasurer and secretary at publicly Gelone as chief development officer. Rowland traded Cholestech. was most recently vice president and CFO Blueprint Medicines (Cambridge, MA, USA) of ViroPharma until its acquisition by Shire has announced the appointment of Anthony Vaccinogen (Frederick, MD, USA) has last year. Prior to joining ViroPharma in (Andy) Boral as senior vice president, clini- appointed Ronald W. Kaiser to its board of 2008, he was the executive vice president and Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. America, Inc. © 201 5 Nature cal development. He joins the company from directors as a member of the nominating and CFO, as well as the interim co-CEO for Endo Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, corporate governance committees and as chair Pharmaceuticals. Gelone was most recently where he served as executive director, oncol- of the audit committee. Kaiser has more than 35 head of clinical R&D at Spark Therapeutics and npg ogy clinical research. years of financial and accounting expertise, and was previously vice president of development currently serves on the boards of Tangoe, Inc. at ViroPharma. Onxeo (Paris) has announced that Elisabeth and Acetylon Pharmaceuticals. Previously he Carstensen and Graham Dixon have been served as CFO at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals SAGE Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) added to its management team. Carstensen, and PharmAthene. has appointed Amy Schacterle vice president formerly director of business development of regulatory affairs and quality assurance. and partnership management at Topotarget, Ryan Maynard has been named a director She brings to SAGE 22 years of experience in has been appointed director of alliance man- and chair of the audit committee of cancer the biotech and life sciences industries, most agement, and Dixon, most recently director of drug developer Lion (Los recently serving as vice president, regulatory R&D at Galapagos NV, has been named CSO Angeles). He joined Rigel Pharmaceuticals in affairs at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals (previ- and head of R&D. 2001, where he currently serves as executive ously Sepracor). vice president and CFO. Regen BioPharma (San Diego) has announced Albany Molecular Research (Albany, NY, that it has appointed Todd Caven to serve as Aquinox Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, USA) has named Jimmy Wang to the newly CFO. Caven is the co-founder of venture capi- British Columbia, Canada) has announced created position of chief information officer, tal firms Saguaro Capital Partners and Rock the appointment of Sean P. Nolan to its replacing the retiring Carl Neumann, senior Ridge Enterprises. In addition, Regen has board of directors. Nolan has more than director, information technology. Most named Christine Ichim to the position of 20 years of biopharma experience, most recently, Wang served as senior vice presi- director of molecular therapeutics. recently serving as executive vice president dent and chief information officer at OPKO and chief business officer at Intermune. Health. Before that, he was senior vice presi- GlaxoSmithKline (London) has announced the Previously, he served as chief commercial dent and chief information officer at Vertex retirement of US pharma operations president officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals.

318 volume 33 NUMBER 3 MARCH 2015 nature