• Michael Fons was promoted to VP of corporate development of Inovio Biomedical (San Diego). In the last three years, as Inovio’s executive director of corporate development, Fons has been integral in defining Inovio’s corporate strategy relating to DNA vaccines and DNA delivery. Inovio Biomedical makes multiple DNA-based immunotherapies.

Amit Dhawan, MD, was promoted to medical director of The MattsonJack Group (St. Louis). Dhawan joined MattsonJack in September 2000 as a consultant and assistant medical director. MattsonJack consultants have expertise in pricing and reimbursement, custom epidemiology, technology assessment, business and strategic plan development, due-diligence and licensing support, market modeling and forecasting, and primary market research

Renee Cohen was named VP of operations and corporate strategy of NeoStem (New York). Previously, Cohen worked for Pfizer. NeoStem specializes in the collection, processing and storage of stem cells from healthy adult donors for personal use in times of critical medical need.

• Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) said that Hugo Stephenson, MD, has been named as president of iGuard, effective immediately. Stephenson will be leading the company’s new service that offers personalized safety information and alerts to patients on the prescription drugs they are taking. Prior to his appointment as president of iGuard, Stephenson had been senior VP of Quintiles’ strategic research and safety services. Quintiles specializes in services in drug development, financial partnering and commercialization for the biotechnology and healthcare industries.

Marcus Smith was named VP of corporate development of SonoSite (Bothell, Washington). Smith joins SonoSite from Philips Medical Systems. SonoSite makes hand-carried ultrasound devices.