• Patrick Gallagher was named senior VP of business development of Acusphere (Watertown, Massachusetts). Gallagher most recently was VP of corporate business development for Mylan Laboratories. Acusphere is a specialty pharma that develops new drugs and improved formulations of existing drugs using its proprietary microsphere technology.

• Biogen Idec (Cambridge, Massachusetts) reported that Marijn Dekkers, PhD, president/CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts), has been elected to the Biogen Idec board. Prior to the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific International in November 2006, Dekkers was president/CEO of Thermo Electron. Biogen make therapies for lymphoma, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

• Maurizio Vecchione was named president/CEO of CompuMed (Los Angeles). Vecchione serves as a managing partner of private equity and venture fund Synthetica Holdings (Pacific Palisades, California), and chairman of Synthetica (America) Ltd., a management consultancy retained previously by CompuMed to provide strategic advisory. CompuMed is a medical informatics company.

• Joseph DeVivo was named president of the orthopedic reconstruction division of Smith & Nephew (Memphis, Tennessee). Most recently DeVivo was president/CEO of RITA Medical Systems. Smith & Nephew’s orthopedic division makes reconstructive products.

• Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) reported that it has named Donald Fletcher as VP of quality assurance and regulatory compliance. Fletcher was previously director of quality assurance at Medtronic vascular products. Spectranetics makes the only excimer laser approved in the U.S., Europe and Japan for use in minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures.