Andrew Mearns Spragg (right), founder and CEO of Aquapharm Biodiscovery (Oban, UK), has been named as the winner of this year's Ernst & Young Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year in healthcare. Aquapharm was spun out of research at St. Andrews University in 2000, when Mearns Spragg was just 28, using grant money as he completed his PhD and postdoctoral research. He has raised more than $12 million in private equity and grant financing to date.

Mearns Spragg will represent Scotland in the national finals of the Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 program, to be announced in October. He comments: “I am delighted to have received this award, which is a reflection not only on my own passion and belief in the company but also the commitment and experience of the growing team. It has been an exciting year for us with the expansion of our management and scientific advisory boards and the ongoing development of our novel anti-infective compounds which are derived from marine microorganisms.”

William F. Brinkerhoff has joined the board of directors of Velcura Therapeutics (Ann Arbor, MI, USA). Brinkerhoff is the founder and COO of Cerenis Therapeutics and was previously vice president of business development for Esperion Therapeutics.

Taligen Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Abbie Celniker as CEO. She succeeds Woodruff Emlen, a cofounder of the company who remains president. Before joining Taligen, Celniker was global head of Novartis Biologics and also held senior R&D leadership positions with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth BioPharma (Genetics Institute) and Genentech.

Privately held Bio-energy (Minneapolis, MN, USA) has announced the appointment of Raj Khankari (right) as CEO. Khankari joins Bioenergy from CIMA Labs, a subsidiary of Cephalon, where he served as general manager, and vice president for worldwide drug delivery technologies.

Daniel Grau has been appointed CEO and vice chairman and Richard King has been named as a director of Cortria (Boston). Grau was most recently COO at CombinatoRx and currently serves on the product advisory board of Concert Pharmaceuticals and the advisory board of Hygeia Therapeutics. King is president and COO at Tercica and was previously executive vice president of commercial operations at Kos Pharmaceuticals.

Exelixis (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has named Frances K. Heller as executive vice president of business development. She brings more than 15 years of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry experience to Exelixis, most recently as head of strategic alliances at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, the global research organization for Novartis. She was previously vice president of corporate development and legal affairs at Signature BioScience.

Oramed Pharmaceuticals (Jerusalem) has named Nobel Prize laureate Avram Hershko to its scientific advisory board. He currently serves as distinguished professor in the biochemistry unit of the B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. His honors include the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 with Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, the Israel Prize for Biochemistry (1994), the Gardner Award (1999), the Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research (2000), the Wolf Prize for Medicine (2001) and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Award (2001).

Donald J. Kellerman has been named to the position of senior vice president, clinical development and medical affairs at MAP Pharmaceuticals (Mountain View, CA, USA). Kellerman has more than 25 years of clinical experience, most recently as senior vice president of development at Inspire Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he held positions at Glaxo Wellcome, Sepracor and Ciba-Geigy.

Active Biotech (Lund, Sweden) has appointed Tomas Leanderson president and CEO effective September 1, replacing Sven Andréasson. Leanderson has served as chief scientific officer at Active Biotech since 1999.

AstraZeneca (London) has announced the resignations of the CEO and research chief of biotech unit MedImmune. CEO David Mott and president of R&D James Young resigned in July, a year after AstraZeneca paid $15.6 billion to acquire MedImmune.

Beat Neukom has been named CFO of Kuros Biosurgery (Zurich). Neukom has over 17 years experience in finance and accounting. Before joining Kuros, he was worldwide finance director for DePuy Mitek, Johnson & Johnson's sports medicine/arthroscopy business unit.

Illumina (San Diego) has announced the appointment of Stephen Pentoney as vice president of array biochemistry in the company's life sciences business unit. Before joining Illumina, he held multiple positions at Beckman Coulter, most recently as director of technology management for the molecular diagnostics business center.

XenoPort (Santa Clara, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of David A. Stamler as senior vice president and chief medical officer. He brings to the company over 15 years of clinical development experience, most recently as the chief scientific officer and head of drug development for Prestwick Pharmaceuticals.

Silence Therapeutics (London) has announced that Jeffery Vick has resigned as group CEO for personal reasons. To replace him, nonexecutive chairman Iain Ross has been named full-time chairman and group CEO. Additionally, Jeremy Curnock Cook, a nonexecutive director of the company, has been appointed senior independent nonexecutive director.