Frank D'Amelio's arrival at Pfizer to take over as chief financial officer was billed as an appointment to reflect the "rapid and complex changes" that have been taking place at the pharma heavyweight of late.

D'Amelio, currently at communications firm Alcatel-Lucent, will join Pfizer in mid-September taking over from Alan Levin, who announced his resignation from the company earlier this year.

Pfizer will be D'Amelio's first pharma employer, having previously held senior positions at AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Alcatel-Lucent.

US pharma firm Cubist has created the new role of chief operating officer at the company, appointing Rob Perez as the first incumbent.

Perez currently holds a senior position in commercial operations at the company, but his expanded role will also encompass management of technical operations, including manufacturing and QA/QC.

The company also announced that Oliver Fetzer, senior vice president or corporate development, research and development, will be leaving the company to consider other opportunities.

Garratt Ponder has been named vice president of pharmaceutical development at Tikvah Therapeutics.

In his new role, Ponder will be responsible for all activities to support production of developmental clinical supplies, as well as the manufacture of approved pharmaceutical products.

Ponder joins the company from a senior product development role at AtheroGenics, and previously held positions at Endeavor Pharmaceuticals and Solvay.

Nucryst Pharmaceuticals, the US developer and manufacturer of anti-infective and anti-inflammatory products, has appointed a new chairman and CEO.

Thomas Gardner took over last week, replacing Barry Heck as chairman and Scott Gillis as president and CEO. Gardner has been a director of Nucryst since May, and according to the firm specialises in "the strategic positioning of companies," having formerly held positions at companies such as Datamonitor, Access Health, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and IMS Health.

A new CFO will be taking over at biopharmaceutical from Nektar Therapeutics, with Tim Harkness taking on the position and the role of senior vice president.

Harkness spent almost decade as CFO of Molecular devices Corporation, recently acquired by MDS, and held responsibility for worldwide manufacturing and development as the company's senior vice president of operations from 2005-2007.