Privately held anti-infective developer Novacta Therapeutics (Welwyn Garden City, UK) has announced the appointment of David Pompliano (right) to its board of directors. In addition, he will also hold the position of chairman of the company's scientific advisory board, providing strategic direction to Novacta's R&D team. Pompliano was formerly vice president and worldwide basic research head of antimicrobials at Merck, and was previously vice president and head of biology for the Microbial Musculoskeletal and Proliferative Diseases Center for Excellence in Drug Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline.“I am pleased to be a part of the Novacta team,” comments Pompliano. “Various threats to public health, such as multiply resistant strains, biothreats and emerging pathogens, make it more important than ever to discover antimicrobials with novel chemical structures. Novacta's core technologies of metabolic engineering and natural product chemistry provide a versatile platform for producing antibiotics that could overcome the resistance mechanisms of the most dangerous multidrug-resistant bacteria.”

Alvine Pharmaceuticals (San Carlos, CA, USA) has named Daniel C. Adelman senior vice president, development and chief medical officer. Before joining the company, Adelman was senior vice president of development and chief medical officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals.

Leah Cann has been named to the board of directors of Marshall Edwards (New Canaan, CT, USA and Sydney). She served as a healthcare analyst at CIBC Oppenheimer, Cadence Capital and Wachovia Securities. She is the founder of Leah Rush Cann Research and Consulting, a cancer research and consulting organization based in Rhode Island. Marshall Edwards has also announced that William D. Rueckert has resigned from its board and has accepted a position on the board of the company's 72% shareholder, Novogen.

J. Melville Engle has been appointed to the board of directors of Oxygen Biotherapeutics (Costa Mesa, CA, USA). Engle has over 27 years experience in leading both large and small companies. He was president and CEO of Dey LP and has held senior executive positions with Merck Generics Group, a division of Merck KGaA, and Allergan.

Biota Holdings (Melbourne) has announced the appointment of James Fox as a nonexecutive director and chairman, succeeding John Grant who has been chairman since 2001. Fox was formerly CEO of Vision Systems and is currently a director of Air New Zealand, Futuris, MS Research and The Technology Partnership.

Peter Gardiner has joined BG Medicine (Waltham, MA, USA) as vice president, medical affairs and senior medical officer. He has served as medical director, global medical affairs and senior medical officer for Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging and vice president, medical sciences for the medical imaging division.

Pharmacyclics (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Ahmed Hamdy as its new chief medical officer. Hamdy most recently served as therapeutic area head for gastroenterology and autoimmune clinical development at Elan Pharmaceuticals, and from February 2006 to June 2008, he was general medicine therapeutic area head at PDL BioPharma.

Marine biotech company Aquapharm Biodiscovery (Oban, UK) has appointed Steve Harris (right) as nonexecutive chairman of the board, replacing Ron James, who is retiring. Harris has over 40 years experience in the pharma and biotech industry. He is currently nonexecutive chairman of Proteome Sciences and Cyprotex and a nonexecutive director at Advanced Medical Solutions Group. In addition, Aquapharm announced the appointment of Sandy McDougall as CFO. He joins the company from Craneware, where he held the same position.

William T. McKee has joined Auxilium Pharmaceuticals' (Malvern, PA, USA) board of directors as an independent director and as a member of the board's audit and compliance committee. He is executive vice president and CFO of Barr Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

John Parkinson has been appointed CFO of Protox Therapeutics (Vancouver, BC, Canada), replacing David Swetlow, vice president of finance and operations. Previously, Parkinson was vice president, finance at Aspreva Pharmaceuticals. He is a member of the audit and finance committee of the Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Society and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia.

Mike Reardon, CEO of healthcare consultancy Xiota, has joined Vidant Pharma (Cambridge, UK) as a nonexecutive director.

Codexis (Redwood City, CA, USA) has announced the promotion of Joseph Sarret to senior vice president, corporate development from his previous position as vice president, corporate development. Sarret joined Codexis in 2005 as corporate counsel and director, business development.

Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics (New York and Petach Tikva, Israel) has elected Malcolm S. Taub to its board of directors. Taub has acted as a consultant to the New York Stock Exchange in its market surveillance department and his investment firm has provided advice with respect to bringing foreign private entities public in the US. He has taught law at several colleges and universities, including the New York University Real Estate Institute, Long Island University and Marymount College.

Rockwell Medical Technologies (Wixom, MI, USA) has named Richard Yocum vice president of drug development and medical affairs, a newly formed position. Yocum has 15 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, most recently as vice president, clinical development and medical affairs at Halozyme Therapeutics.