People, February, 2007

Following its acquisition of Altana Pharma in December 2006, Nycomed has formally named Julian Trimming as country manager for the UK and Ireland. Julian has more than 28 years' experience of the pharma industry and had been serving as the firm's interim managing director since July 2006, while also a consultant for the MSI Consultancy. He has a degree in biochemistry and has spent time working in America and Switzerland.

Amgen has appointed Azmina Khanbhai as its medical affairs manager for nephrology for the UK and Ireland. The role includes key opinion leader liaison and project management. A qualified doctor, she has two years' experience of the nephrology sector, gained as medical manager at Abbott Laboratories in Spain.

The Lowe Healthcare Europe and Deutsch-ICC Europe group has hired Bob Elton as planning director. He has been working on UK and international brands for 19 years, having helped to create Junction 11 in 1997, where he remained for five years as managing director.

Sanofi-aventis (SA) has appointed Dr Marc Cluzel as senior vice president, science and medical affairs. He succeeds GÈrard le Fur, who has been named as CEO. Dr Cluzel, a medical doctor with a PhD in biochemistry, has served at the Johns Hopkins University. His most recent role at SA was senior vice president, international development. The company has announced three further appointments, all effective from January 1, 2007: Dr Sol Rajfer is appointed as senior vice president, deputy to the senior vice president for science and medical affairs. He remains in the role of president of US scientific and medical affairs for SA; Dr Jean-Philippe Santoni is appointed as senior vice president, international development, and Dr Kazuji Tawara is made vice president, scientific affairs Japan. He reports to Marc Cluzel. Within SA UK, Blake Dark has been hired as director, Winthrop Healthcare and Base Business, with responsibility for generics, OTC and mature products. Mike Isles joins as director, supply chain, while Andy Clarke has been promoted to the position of general manager, Winthrop UK.

PRimage Services is a new offering in PR, public affairs and marketing communications formed by Judy Viitanen, former head of PR and public affairs at the National Pharmacy Association. PRimage will use a virtual network of design consultants, marcoms and event management firms. Judy has 16 years' experience of healthcare communications.

Dr Richard Dixey, co-founder of Phytopharm, is stepping down as CEO and board director, to be replaced by Dr Daryl Rees who has served as COO since 2000. Piers Morgan joins as CFO. Dr Dixey does not currently plan to sell his shares in the firm.

European speciality pharma company Archimedes has announced the appointment of Simon Collins as UK country manager, reporting directly to CEO Richard de Souza. Simon served most recently as business unit director and executive committee member for sanofi-aventis in the UK.

Affiniti, a member of the Adventis Group, has announced Stephen Dunn as commercial director and Neil Smith as deputy MD. Stephen joins from Darwin Grey where he focused on e-learning and CME. Neil takes on a key role at Affiniti, while continuing as creative services director for the agency and chairman of the PM Society Awards.

Annabel Pino has rejoined hsdcommunications as senior account manager following a 12-month stint with Ogilvy Healthworld in Spain, where she worked on Cialis, Xeloda, Reminyl, Lamictal and Eprex. At hsd she works across medical and consumer divisions.

LeapFrog Medical Comms has recruited Asad Raja into the new business development team. He joins from Eisai where he served as a senior product manager for five years. LeapFrog has also hired Ayo Olunloyo as part of the multimedia team working on audio-visual programmes.

Richard Hollies has been hired to head up the OTC sales and marketing operation at Actavis, leading the firm's programme of POM to P switches. He has more than 20 years' experience of OTC marketing.

Paul Turner has joined Conversis, a provider of GILT services, as client services manager. He was formerly with Ithaca Global Solutions.

Biopharmaceutical group PharmaMar has appointed Dr Enrique Sendagorta as MD, effective February 12. A qualified doctor of medicine, he served formerly as vice president of Bristol-Myers Squibb's operations in Spain. He has authored more than 30 scientific publications.

Adrian Brown has joined ScopeMedical as director, client services. He worked previously in healthcare advertising at Medicus and the Omnicom Group, as well as Medicus International. Most recently he headed up the medical education and PR business unit at EuroRSCG Life. Another newcomer to the company is Andrew Bourke, as finance executive.

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Innovex (UK) has announced the appointment of Colin Hannah as MD. Colin served formerly as MD for sanofi-aventis in Australia and New Zealand, prior to which he was marketing director for Aventis UK. Alison Clough is responsible for the global health strategy for Innovex. She will be executing multi-country and multi-service projects.

Training and development firm, Excel Communications, has appointed Andrew Waiton as head of sales and marketing of the Excel Academy, a new service which aims to help pharma firms develop opinion leader programmes via personal skills development events.

Paling Walters has announced two new account directors: Ed Shorthose has experience of global and local cardiovascular, obesity, ophthalmology and men's health campaigns, and once shared a rowing boat with Olympian Matthew Pinsent; Steve Morris also joins the firm, having previously founded and run his own company, the Print Archives, for 15 years.

Sarah Brereton has joined Cambridge Healthcare and Biotech as marketing and administration manager. She has worked in life science consultancy for nine years.

The Harten Group, provider of interim management and permanent recruitment services for pharma and biotech firms, has expanded its team through the addition of Anette Angell as management consultancy and marketing co-ordinator.

Medical journal, Geriatric Medicine, has restructured its editorial department: Deborah Valentine joins as managing editor with a view to attaining Medline accreditation for the publication. Alison Bloomer (n?e Boyle) is projects editor and will be managing GM conferences. Dawn Powell has been promoted to the position of editorial assistant, working across the whole business.

Dewar Advertising has added to its team Frankie Laws, from Ogilvy Healthworld Advertising, to work on the consumer portfolio. John Hartley will lead medical education projects. He has been in the industry for more than 20 years.

SantÈ Communications has created the new post of director of media strategy and appointed to it ex-medical writer for the Daily Telegraph, Celia Hall. Celia said it would be ìa change and a challengeî after years spent in newsrooms. She trained on the Birmingham Post and has written for the Independent.

Cegedim Strategic Data UK has made four new hires:Denham Lansdell joins from Propagate Pharma as client service manager; Ian Stevens, also a client service manager, joins from Lundbeck, where he was market research manager; Christopher Wooden joins from the Paris office as regional vice president; and Gerard Mulroney joins from the Sydney office as a research executive. Cegedim's office is now located in Chertsey, Surrey.

Wells Healthcare Comms has made five new appointments: Cate Scott joins as director, client services, with responsibility for strategy and planning; Jodi Eason joins as manager, client services, with responsibility for key international accounts; Samantha Chalmers joins as associate director, client services, with responsibility for implementing medical education programmes on behalf of Wells' clients; Susan Craib joins as a medical writer. She has a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Aberdeen and the Novartis Institute for Medical Sciences; and Michael Withers has been promoted to operations director. Previously managing editor, Michael is now responsible for Wells' integrated editorial, creative and e-media teams.