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February/March 2015 Laboratory Focus www.laboratoryfocus.ca
aPPointments
Northern Lipids Inc. announces the appointment of Dr. Norbert Maurer as director of R&D. Dr. Maurer brings to NLI over 20 years of experience in the development of delivery technologies for conventional chemotherapeutic agents and biopharmaceuticals such as therapeutic antibodies and nucleic acid-based drugs. Most recently as head of formulations at CDRD, Dr. Maurer focused on the formulation of drugs, from novel small molecule therapeutics to the new macromolecular therapeutics coming from proteomics and genomics research. Previously, he was involved with a number of Vancouver-based pharmaceutical companies that tended to focus on delivery platforms. Dr. Maurer obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry while living in Austria followed by post-doctoral training in the Biochemistry Department (The Liposome Research Unit) of the University of British Columbia. He has authored 27 peer-reviewed papers, review articles and book chapters and is named on six patents/patent applications. Sirona Biochem Corp. has added Dr. Martin Gleave to its board of directors. Dr. Gleave is a clinicianscientist and urologic surgeon and holds numerous leadership positions in research and academia. He is currently a distinguished professor and vice chair of the department of urologic sciences at UBC and director at the Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC). His major research focus involves the study of cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating progression of prostate cancer to its lethal stage of androgen independence, and use of this information to develop integrated multimodality therapies that specifically target these mechanisms. Dr. Gleave established a role for clusterin as a cancer-related cell survival protein involved in treatment resistance and developed an inhibitor, designated OGX011, which improved efficacy of hormone- and chemo-therapies in prostate and other cancer models. He is also the scientific founder of OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc. The TVN Network has elected Russell Williams, president, Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D), as its new chair of its board of directors.
ness director of oncology, global strategic marketing and therapeutic area head of oncology at Roche, Basel, where he also served as medical director in oncology and global development project leader.
Russell Williams
Mr. Williams assumed the role at the board’s first meeting held in Toronto on January 22, 2015. TVN is a not-for-profit research network aimed at improving the care of seriously ill elderly patients, and supporting their families and caregivers. Prior to joining Rx&D, he successfully represented the Montréal riding of Nelligan for 15 years as a Liberal MNA in the National Assembly of Québec, and is well known for his advocacy for individual rights and government services focused on the needs of citizens. He continues active volunteer involvement in palliative care and, in January 2014, received the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada (QELCCC) second annual Award of Excellence in Advocacy for his tireless advocacy for hospice palliative care. He is also well known for his championship of Canadian health research, and this commitment was honoured in November of 2014 when he received the inaugural Research Canada Leadership Award. Aptose Biosciences Inc. has added oncology industry veteran and venture investor Dr. Erich M. Platzer to its board of directors. He brings considerable product development, clinical trial management, licensing and commercialization expertise from his career in the pharmaceutical industry. He also has a rich background in oncology and hematology from both the clinical and business perspectives. Dr. Platzer is a board certified physician in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology. Previously, Dr. Platzer was busi-
BriaCell Therapeutics Corp has engaged Dr. Steven J. O’Day as principal investigator for its upcoming BriaVax™ vaccine clinical trial. Dr. O’Day is a highly specialized oncologist with a history of leading successful clinical trials, having been educated and trained at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Oxford. Dr. O’Day has acted as the principal investigator on over 100 clinical trials including several large, international Phase 3 clinical trials. He served as the principal investigator in BristolMyers Squibb’s Phase 3 clinical trial for its Yervoy, which included 676 patients, and saw a significant improvement in overall survival for late-stage melanoma patients. Lynne Bulger will be joining Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. in the role of vice president, medical and clinical affairs where she will lead the company’s clinical development and medical affairs efforts for current and new pipeline products. Ms. Bulger has 27 years of experience in drug development in the pharmaceutical industry, conducting clinical research and providing strategic medical marketing support in dermatology, rheumatology, osteoporosis and CNS. Most recently, she held the position of director medical affairs at Stiefel, a GSK company. In this role, she was responsible for medical affairs activities for Stiefel Global and Canada for 35 dermatology products. Previous to that, she was director medical and regulatory affairs at Barrier Therapeutics and director medical affairs at Hoffman-La Roche. She also served as president of the Canadian Dermatology Industry Association from 2005 to 2008. In addition to this appointment, Cipher promoted Peter Weiler to the position of vice president, business development and Linda Angaritis to the position of vice president, global regulatory compliance and quality. The Public Health Agency of Canada announces the appointment of Dr. Matthew Gilmour as its new scientific director general
National Public Health Laboratories, responsible for the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, MB and the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (LFZ) in Guelph, ON. Dr. Gilmour is currently a clinical microbiologist with diagnostic services of Manitoba and an assistant professor in the department of medical microbiology at the University of Manitoba.
Dr. Matthew Gilmour
He is also a past employee of the Agency where he held the positions of director of bacteriology and enteric diseases and the chief of enteric diseases at the NML. As scientific director general, he will be responsible for managing the delivery of laboratory public health and emergency preparedness programs, providing strategic scientific advice to senior officials and representing Canada’s top human health laboratories nationally and internationally. The position is being filled following the retirement of Dr. Frank Plummer. Xite Bio welcomes Bob Reekie to its team. Reekie was named the company’s new business and product manager. He will be based out of Regina, SK. Reekie has a long history of excellence in sales, marketing, and business development with Bayer CropScience (BCS), and most recently as a BCS consultant. His roles at Bayer CropScience have included director of cereal crops marketing Canada, director of marketing Western Canada, director of InterAg, and cereal portfolio manager.
