Christian Velmer has been appointed president and managing director of Wyeth Canada, effective November 17, 2008. Mr. Velmer replaces Arnout Ploos Van Amstel, who has taken a position as senior vice president and general manager, Institutional Business Unit for Wyeth.
   
"Mr. Velmer brings to his new position an extensive knowledge of pharmaceutical company management. I'm pleased to welcome him aboard and I look forward to the continued progress of the Canadian business under his leadership," said Andreas Krebs, president, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Canada, Wyeth.
   
Most recently, Mr. Velmer was senior vice president Western Europe for Merck Serono in Frankfurt, Germany where he was responsible for the management of 16 countries across Europe. Prior to joining Merck Serono, Mr. Velmer held various senior executive positions with Johnson & Johnson and Bayer in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

The FDA has granted Pfizer's Selzentry (maraviroc) full approval for use in treatment-experienced adults with CCR5-tropic HIV-1 in combination with other antiretrovirals. Selzentry was originally granted accelerated conditional approval in August 2007 based on 24-week data from Phase III studies.  
   
The full approval is based on 48-week data from the MOTIVATE (Maraviroc Plus Optimized Therapy in Viremic Antiretrovial Treatment Experienced Patients) studies. The studies compared the safety and effectiveness of Selzentry plus optimized background therapy to placebo plus optimized background therapy in treatment-experienced CCR5-tropic HIV-1 patients.
   
Accelerated conditional approval is granted to medicines that provide a therapeutic advantage over existing treatments for serious or life-threatening diseases. The FDA grants full approval status once longer-term safety and efficacy data is established. Once full approval is granted, restrictions that apply to conditionally approved medicines are lifted.
   
“Selzentry has been on a long journey, from its initial discovery by Pfizer scientists in 2000 to this full FDA approval,” said Dr. Howard Mayer, Pfizer’s executive director, and development team leader for HIV/AIDS. “We are extremely excited with this important milestone in Selzentry’s lifecycle and the potential improvement it may bring to treatment-experienced people living with HIV/AIDS.”

Compugen Ltd. has signed a collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, a division of Merck Serono, for CGEN-855, Compugen's novel peptide targeting the FPRL1 G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR). This peptide has demonstrated the potential to treat inflammatory diseases and other indications such as cancer, metabolism and cardiovascular diseases.
    
Under the agreement, Compugen will conduct additional research and Merck Serono has an option to exclusively license the peptide for worldwide development and commercialization.
   
“We are very proud to add Merck Serono to the growing list of leading pharma companies with which we have collaborations for the advancement of our product candidates,” said Compugen chief executive officer, Mr. Alex Kotzer. “We are also pleased to be the first Israeli biotech company that has signed an agreement with Merck Serono under the Global Enterprise Partnership program of the Chief Scientist of Israel.”

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