A Medical Device Daily

As part of a leadership succession plan announced by Elekta (Stockholm, Sweden) last fall, Tomas Puusepp has assumed the positions of president and CEO of the manufacturer of advanced neurosurgery and radiotherapy treatment devices. Laurent Leksell, the company’s largest shareholder and former president and CEO, is assuming a new role focusing on the company’s strategic development, long-term customer relations and expansion into new markets.

Leksell has been with Elekta since the company’s founding in 1972 and has served as president and CEO since 1986. Under his leadership, Elekta has grown to a global supplier of advanced medical technology, with sales of more than SEK 3.5 billion, 1,700 employees, and equipment and software systems installed in more than 3,000 hospitals worldwide.

Last September, the company’s board of directors appointed Puusepp to succeed Leksell as president, effective May 1 of this year. He had previously been a member of Elekta’s executive committee, most recently with global responsibility for sales, marketing and service operations.

Puusepp joined Elekta in 1988 and has held various executive positions within the group, including managing Elekta’s operations within neurosurgery and as president of Elekta’s North American subsidiary in Norcross, Georgia. He has a total of 22 years of senior management experience in international medical technology markets, including introduction of new clinical solutions and financing systems.

“Elekta stands well prepared for a period of continued profitable growth,” said Puusepp. “We have an organization and a market position which will enable us to further expand the group’s profitability.”

Citing Elekta’s “world-leading and unique product portfolio,” he added: “We can now offer a fully integrated solution for the whole cancer care process from [diagnosis] and treatment planning to treatment delivery and follow-up.”

Puusepp said the company expects to continue to gain market share and also to expand into new geographic markets. In the long term, he said, Elekta “will develop into a solution partner, able to assume an overall responsibility for quality and efficiency in the clinic’s treatment process.”

In two other management appointments, Gerry van Oortmarssen becomes executive vice president of sales, marketing & service, and Olof Sand n has been named vice president, region manager Europe.

Formerly head of Elekta’s European market region, van Oortmarssen now has global responsibility for the company’s sales, marketing and service operations. He has been with Elekta since 1997, coming from senior management positions with ADAC, where he was responsible for the company’s European operations.

Sand n, formerly vice president, marketing and business development, was employed at Elekta from 1995-97 and again since 2002. In the intervening period, he was Swedish trade commissioner in Germany, with added coordinating responsibility for the Swedish Export Council’s activities in Central Europe, the United Kingdom and the Benelux nations.

Broadened European presence for Relsys

Relsys International (Irvine, California), a provider of adverse-event reporting software for the life sciences industry, said it has relocated its UK offices to the Chiswick Business Park, which it referred to as “one of West London’s highest-profile business facilities.”

The company also reported the hiring of two new regional executives. Patricia Basset joins Relsys as the company’s account director for Europe, bringing extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including work for Deloitte and Touche’s Pharmaceutical Group and Phase Forward. She will be located in the new UK offices. Philippe Rogiers, based in Paris, joins the company as a senior project manager after lengthy service with Praxis (Servier). Relsys said he is an expert in best-of-breed integration.

Other recent European initiatives reported by the company included deploying a fully operational European customer help desk and increased interaction with European regulatory authorities.

Relsys provides comprehensive adverse-event and complaint-tracking software and services that help pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies ensure ongoing compliance to global regulations. The company said its flagship Argus Safety product is the world’s best-selling adverse-event reporting software.

IntegraGen joins in EuroHear effort

IntegraGen (Paris) will be part of an EU consortium, EuroHear, which has been awarded EUR12.5 million ($16.2 million) to research hearing impairments.

IntegraGen’s role will be to identify genes that predispose individuals to presbycusis, the most common form of inherited hearing impairment. The company said it would apply its GenomeHIP technology as part of genome-wide linkage studies.