The big recruitment news this week was of course the appointment of a new CEO at pharma heavyweight GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

The UK firm announced that the current president of its European pharmaceutical division, Andrew Witty, would be taking over the top job following the retirement of current incumbent Jean-Pierre Garnier at the end of 2008.

Witty was the winning candidate from three internal contenders for the role, and there has been much media speculation as to how the two unsuccessful candidates could react to the decision.

Chris Viehbacher, head of GSK's US business, and David Stout, president of pharma operations, were seen as perhaps more experienced choices, and there has been some speculation as to how GSK will hang on to these top employees following the Witty appointment.

Pfizer, too, has been shifting things about in HR over the last week or so, with a number of top appointments.

Last Wednesday the company announced that current Microsoft employee, Tanya Clemons, would be joining the firm as vice president and chief talent officer from November. The next day, Pfizer named Martin Mackay as its new head of R&D and Briggs Morrison as head of clinical development.

Mackay has been tasked with raising productivity, increasing collaborations, expanding the firm's biopharma pipeline as well as squeezing the most value out of its existing pipeline.

In line with company's well-documented moves to establish a presence in the growing biologics market, Pfizer also announced the launch of its new independent biotherapeutics and bioinnovation centre, to be headed up by Corey Goodman, founder of biotech firms Exelixis and Renovis.

Drug delivery specialist Nastech has named a new chief scientific officer in charge of developing new drug delivery technologies for the company.

Rick Constantino will take over responsibility of developing new delivery technologies for peptide and protein therapeutics following the retirement of former CSO Paul Johnson last week.

Constantino served as director of formulations at Nastech from 2003 before recently being promoted to VP of pharmaceutical R&D. Prior to joining Nastech, he held positions at Alkermes and Genentech.

Canadian firm Covalon has named a new COO in the form of former VP of clinical and regulatory affairs and operational processes, Sonia Sanhueza.

Sanhueza takes over the COO role from William Jackson, who will continue as the company's CFO as well as taking on the role of chief business officer.

Medical technology firm Invivi has also recently appointed a new COO, naming the company's executive vice president, Edward Hammel, as the new holder of the position.

Hammel will continue in his VP role, a position he has held since joining the firm in 2004, as well as taking on the administrative and operational activities his new role entails.