Raina and Chattopadhyay have joined Alkem Laboratories as senior vice-president (international operations) and vice-president (knowledge resources), respectively. Iyer is learnt to have joined Pune-based Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Hariharan has joined as chief financial officer (CFO) in Strides Arcolabs Ltd.

The company has already filled the posts that have fallen vacant. Rajesh Ladda has joined NPIL as the company's new senior vice-president (finance), Sailesh Gadre is president (Actis division), Ananth Narayan will be the new vice-president (exports), and Sohail Abidi is the company's new vice-president (knowledge resources).

Dr M Anand joins Pfizer

Dr Mohanish Anand has joined Pfizer Ltd as head, clinical alliances and support. Before joining Pfizer he was with SIRO Clinpharm Pvt Ltd as manager, business development. Having done his PhD in Applied Biology from Tata Memorial Center, University of Mumbai and PG Diploma in Management at NMIMS, Mumbai, he started his career at SIRO Clinpharm. He worked in different roles from manager projects to manager business development in his stint of over three years. At SIRO, he was involved in structuring its strategic alliance with Covance Inc. USA.

Lupin inducts Marc, Sunil

Pharma major Lupin Ltd has inducted two representatives of Citigroup, Marc Desaedeleer, who heads Citigroup's private equity business across Central and Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East and Africa, and Sunil Nair, managing partner of CVC International on its board. Recently CVC International, a Citigroup Global Investments Unit acquired 12.55 percent state in Lupin Ltd. Sunil Nair said that Lupin is our first company to venture in pharma sector in India. Looking at the opportunities in biotech field in India CVC International will definitely look at biotech too in near future. Marc said that CVC was looking at its investment in Lupin as a long term one.

N Vaghul joins APIDC-VC

Narayanan Vaghul has joined APIDC Venture Capital Ltd as chairman, investment committee for the biotech fund. Vaghul is currently chairman of the Board of ICICI Bank, which is the second largest bank in India. Vaghul said, "Biotechnology is an area where India has significant advantages, and the major growth needs to come from start-up and early stage enterprises similar to the experience in the West. The most critical ingredient for the success of these enterprises is early-stage venture capital. However, less than a handful of VCs are addressing early stage venture capital requirements in India today. APIDC VCL fills this gap perfectly." Vaghul is considered to be the father of the Indian venture capital industry in India. Vaghul had joined ICICI in 1985 as chairman and CEO and relinquished his position as CEO in 1996. During his 11-year tenure, he had transformed ICICI to a well-diversified financial conglomerate. He was instrumental in starting an investment bank, a commercial bank, an asset management company, India's first credit rating company Crisil, as part of the ICICI group. Importantly, Vaghul was responsible for the launch of India's first venture capital Company TDICI, now called ICICI Ventures. He initiated venture capital activity in ICICI in the late eighties and then created its wholly-owned subsidiary, TDICI, to provide technology venture capital. In addition to being the chairman of ICICI Bank, Vaghul is also the chairman of India's first asset reconstruction company (ARC) and the chairman of ICICI Knowledge Park.

Prof. Hoffman felicitated

Prof. Allan S. Hoffman, Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, USA received the Chandra P Sharma Award for the year 2002 at the XIV National Conference on Biomaterials and Artificial Organs—BIMAO 2003 held at IIT, Mumbai. Prof. Hoffman has over 300 publications, several books and chapters, 21 patents and other patents are pending too. His activities include synthesis, characterization and application of site specific conjugates of smart polymers and genetically engineered proteins, synthesis and characterization of natural polymer hydrogels for use as tissue engineering matrices or as coatings for implants, design and synthesis of acid sensitive polymers for incorporation into drug delivery formulations where acidic environments are encountered during drug delivery and surface modification and characterization of polymeric biomaterials. His work brought him many laurels such as Clemson Award in biomaterials, Founders' Award of the Society for Biomaterials, Japanese Biomaterials Society Science Award, two Controlled Release Society Award etc.