PolyTherics (London) has announced the appointment of John Burt (below, right) as chief business officer. He was most recently CEO and co-founder of Thiakis. His previous posts include positions at Imperial Innovations, GlaxoSmithKline and Vernalis.

“We are delighted that John has joined us and are sure that his experience, notably with Thiakis and GSK, will be invaluable,” says PolyTherics CEO Keith Powell. “We now have a management team which, together with our chairman, Ken Cunningham, has the breadth of experience with both biotech and large pharma companies to take PolyTherics to the next stage in its evolution.”

Vical (San Diego) has announced the appointment of Igor P. Bilinsky as senior vice president, corporate development. Bilinsky was previously at Halozyme Therapeutics, where he served most recently as vice president, business development and special operations.

Aastrom Biosciences (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) has named Ronald Cresswell to its board of directors. Cresswell is the former senior vice president and CSO of Warner-Lambert and has served on the board of directors of Esperion Therapeutics, Allergan, Curagen and Vasogen.

Milind S. Deshpande has been promoted to president of R&D and retains his position as CSO, and Mary Kay Fenton has been promoted to senior vice president and retains her position as CFO at Achillion Pharmaceuticals (New Haven, CT, USA). Deshpande previously served as the company's executive vice president of R&D and Ms. Fenton served as vice president.

Jeffrey D. Edelson has been appointed chief medical officer of Palatin Technologies (Cranbury, NJ, USA). Edelson has more than 15 years of clinical development experience in the pharma and biotech industries, most recently serving as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer of Ikano Therapeutics. Prior to that, he was vice president and therapeutic area head of novel therapeutics for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development. In addition, Palatin announced the resignation of Trevor Hallam as executive vice president of R&D, effective December 31. His departure results from the company's decision last quarter to eliminate research and discovery activities, and focus on advancing its phase 2 clinical candidates.

Ambit Biosciences (San Diego) has named biotech industry veteran Faheem Hasnain as chairman of the board and Alan Fuhrman as CFO. From December 2008 until its acquisition by Abbott Laboratories in April, Hasnain was president, CEO and a director of Facet Biotech. Previously he was with PDL BioPharma, Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline. Fuhrman joins Ambit from Naviscan, where he served as vice president and CFO. He also held positions at Sonus Pharmaceuticals and Integrex.

James Patrick Kelly has been appointed senior vice president, CFO, treasurer and secretary of Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Rockville, MD, USA). Kelly has more than 18 years of financial and operating experience in the healthcare industry, most recently as vice president, controller at MedImmune.

The board of directors of Athersys (Cleveland, OH, USA) has elected Ismail Kola as a director of the company. Kola currently serves as executive vice president of Belgium-based pharma company UCB and as president of UCB New Medicines, UCB's discovery research through proof-of-concept organization since November 2009. He currently serves on the board of directors of Astex Pharmaceuticals, Synosia and Ondek, and has previously served on the board of directors for companies such as Eragen Biotech, Promega and Ingene.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Tarrytown, NY, USA) has elected Christine A. Poon to fill a new seat on its expanded board of directors. Poon currently serves as dean of Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. She was formerly vice chairman of the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson and worldwide chairman of the Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Group.

Vestaron (Kalamazoo, MI, USA) has announced the election of John Sorenson to the position of chairman and Elin Miller to the position of vice chairman of the company's board of directors. Both were previously members of the board. Former Chairman Eli Thomssen remains on the board. Sorenson was formerly president of Syngenta Biotechnology and before that president of Syngenta Seeds. Miller previously held senior management positions with Dow, Dow AgroSciences and ArystaLifeScience.

Amarin (Dublin, Ireland, and Mystic, CT, USA) has announced the appointment of two replacements for president, CEO and director Colin Stewart, who resigned in November to address personal matters. Joseph S. Zakrzewski, who has served as Amarin's chairman of the board since January 2010, has been named CEO while continuing to serve as chairman. He most recently served as CEO of Xcellerex. Additionally, John F. Thero has been appointed president of Amarin. Since November 2009, Thero had been the company's CFO.

Gentris (Morrisville, NC, USA) has appointed Sam C. Tetlow executive chairman of the company's board of directors. He currently serves as vice president of business development for Calvert Research and as a director of Immunologix. In addition, Gentris has named Howard McLeod as the company's first chief scientific advisor. McLeod is the Fred N. Eshelman Distinguished Professor and director of the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as principal investigator for the CREATE Pharmacogenomics Research Network and is a member of the FDA Committee on Clinical Pharmacology.

Timothy P. Walbert has been elected to the board of directors of antibody therapeutics developer XOMA (Berkeley, CA, USA). A seasoned executive with experience launching therapeutic products including Abbott Laboratories' Humira (adalimumab), Walbert currently serves as chairman, president and CEO of privately held Horizon Pharma.