Avontec GmbH, of Martinsried, Germany, named Helge Grupe as chief business officer and managing director. Grupe was previously vice president of business development at Wilex AG, of Munich.

BT Pharma SA, of Toulouse, France, appointed Martin Koch vice president of finance and administration. Koch previously held financial and managerial positions with Eli Lilly and Co., Elan Pharmaceuticals, Zeneus Pharma and Cephalon Pharmaceuticals, among others. In May, BT Pharma raised a €1.3 million bridge finance facility to enable it to move its lead product, ProCervix, a therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of high-grade neoplasia caused by the human papilloma virus, through preclinical development and into Phase I/II clinical trials. That brought to €3.8 million the total funding the company has raised since it was founded in October 2001.

DBV Technologies, of Boulogne-Billancourt, France, has strengthened its management team with three new appointments and moved into larger premises. Hing Kin Chan has joined the company as chief business officer; Florian Reinaud has become the company's first chief financial officer; and Laurent Martin has been appointed regulatory affairs director. While remaining headquartered in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, DBV Technologies has moved all its research and development activities into a new life science incubator built next to the Cochin Hospital in central Paris. The new facilities could house up to 80 people, although the company currently employs about 30. DBV was founded in 2002 and is developing a proprietary epicutaneous delivery technology for the diagnosis and treatment of allergies.