Taiho Oncology Prepares for Launch
Taiho Oncology, Inc., a division of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., made its first step in transitioning to a more fully integrated clinical development and commercial entity by appointing Tim Whitten as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. The company is preparing for the potential marketing approval of its lead compound, TAS-102, an oral combination anticancer drug.
“Tim’s extensive commercial experience, which includes having launched the highly successful chemotherapy, Taxol [from Bristol-Myers Squibb], as well as other oncology compounds,” explains Eric Benn, President and CEO of Taiho Oncology, Inc., “makes him particularly well suited to build our commercial organization in the USA and a critical addition to our executive leadership team.”
Prior to joining Taiho Oncology, Whitten spent 17 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he served in various sales, marketing and strategic planning roles.
Palio+Ignite Names New President
Kim Johnson was named President of Palio+Ignite, an inVentiv Health communications agency , where she will be responsible for charting the next phase of the agency’s evolution as it expands the services it provides in medical, consumer and managed markets communications.
“Kim’s results-driven approach to marketing and her vast experience make her ideally suited to lead Palio+Ignite,” says Michael Griffith, Executive Vice President of inVentiv Health. “Her knowledge across the product lifecycle and commitment to innovative technology will optimize commercial success for our clients’ pharmaceutical brands.”
Johnson has worked with some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Pfizer and Merck, and has a proven record of consistent double-digit business growth.
BioNano Genomics
Mike Ward was appointed as a member of the senior executive management team and Vice President, Corporate Development at the genome mapping instrument company. Ward has more than 20 years of life sciences-dedicated investment banking, venture capital and private equity experience.
GA Communication Group
The Chicago-based agency promoted Cathy Metzler to Vice President, Finance in recognition of her leadership and service to the agency and its clients. The agency also promoted several employees within the Account Management group including Molly Lane to Senior Account Director and Meghan Thompson to Senior Account Supervisor.
Intouch Solutions
Joey Barnes was promoted to Vice President, Business Development. Barnes joined the Intouch team more than six years ago and has held roles in client service and as Senior Director of Business Development. In her new role, Barnes will help drive new business relationships and lead marketing and advertising activities for the firm.
K-V Pharmaceutical Company
The specialty branded pharmaceutical company recently reorganized its operations and created two new business units—The Women’s Healthcare Division and the Maternal Health Division—and announced that Paul Williams will lead the Women’s Healthcare Division. Williams joins KV from Actavis, Inc. where we he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intellogics.
Liquid Grids
The precision marketing company appointed Daniel M. Bradbury, former CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, as the new Chairman of the Board. Bradbury has served as a director of Geron since September 2012 and also serves as a member of the board of directors of Illumina, Inc., Corcept Therapeutics, BioCon Ltd. and BioMed Realty.
Medtronic
Hooman Hakami was named Executive Vice President and Group President of the Medtronic Diabetes Group. Hakami previously served as president and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Detection and Guidance Solutions business where he was responsible for the global strategic direction and operational execution of the X-ray, bone density, mammography, fluoroscopy and interventional systems markets.
nitrogen
The global healthcare advertising agency, and one of Huntsworth Health’s boutique agencies, hired Erika Maas as VP, Account Director and head of the U.S. account management and client service team. Maas was previously at JUICE Pharma Worldwide, where she spent 10 years working through a series of account leadership roles.
Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide
Michele Andrews joined Ogilvy CommonHealth Payer Marketing as Executive Vice President, Payer Strategy. Andrews will report directly to Rich Trezza, General Manager of both Ogilvy CommonHealth Payer Marketing and Ogilvy Healthworld Payer Marketing and will be responsible for the strategic direction of all Ogilvy CommonHealth’s payer accounts.
Purdue Pharma
Saeed Motahari is taking his 20 years of pharma sales and marketing experience to Purdue Pharma L.P. as its new Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. He joins Purdue from AbbVie, where he served as Vice President of U.S. Sales and Marketing, Specialty Brands – New Launches. Prior to working at AbbVie, Motahari held roles with Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Hoffmann-La Roche.
TESARO
The oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company appointed Tim Pearson as Chief Financial Officer. Pearson has more than 20 years of finance and executive leadership experience and he most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Catalyst Health Solutions, Inc. He also had financial executive roles at MedImmune and the biologics division of AstraZeneca.
Vector Oncology
In addition to recently announcing its name change from ACORN Research LLC to Vector Oncology Solutions LLC, the company announced the appointments of Michael Choukas as Chief Executive Officer and Sean Hart as EVP & Managing Director, Pharmaceutical Services. Choukas was most recently a founding partner of several oncology-focused ventures as well as Partner at the private equity Watermill Group. Meanwhile, Hart most recently served as General Manager of Global Product Approval and Commercialization at United Biosource Corporation (UBC).
