Elan

Eliseo Oreste Salinas, M.D., M.Sc., has joined Elan Corp. as executive vice president and chief medical officer, with responsibility for leading the company’s global development, clinical and medical initiatives. Dr. Salinas will be based at Elan’s South San Francisco campus, will be a member of the company’s executive leadership team, and will report to company president Carlos Paya, M.D., Ph.D. As part of his CMO responsibilities, he will also retain specific accountabilities to Elan chief executive officer Kelly Martin relating to patient safety.

Dr. Salinas joins the company from Adolor Corp., where he was senior vice president of R&D and chief medical officer, responsible for 90 scientists and clinicians in discovery, clinical R&D, pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs and medical affairs. Previously, he served at Shire, Inc., as chief scientific officer and executive vice president of Global Pharmaceutical R&D, where he managed R&D strategy and more than 400 employees, achieving six major drug submissions in four years. Dr. Salinas spent 11 years at Wyeth-Ayerst in progressive leadership positions including head of Worldwide CNS. As such, he is very familiar with Elan’s discovery role and progress in Alzheimer’s immunotherapy. He also served as International Project Leader, CNS at Synthelabo. Dr. Salinas has overseen eight successful NDAs, seven approved sNDAs, and four approved European submissions.

Elan’s chief medical officer and head of development, Menghis Bairu, M.D., will resume his primary responsibility as executive vice president and general manager of Tysabri.