Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S announced the hiring of senior level management in preparation for potential U.S. commercialization of Envarsus XR (tacrolimus extended-release tablets) an investigational new drug under FDA review for the prevention of organ rejection in adult kidney transplant patients. Bob Dufour has been appointed head of sales and marketing. Mr. Dufour has worked extensively in both sales and marketing roles at Abbott, Wyeth and Auxillium.

Mr. Dufour has prior transplant commercial experience having managed the marketing activities for Wyeth's Rapamune transplant franchise. Steve Bourke has been appointed head of market access and reimbursement. Mr. Bourke has joined from Ipsen Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for market access and patient services.

Prior to that he worked for Celgene. Steve trained as a pharmacist and has worked as both a retail pharmacist and within a specialty pharmacy organization that provided patient access to specialized products. Michelle Mc Guinness has been appointed global head of regulatory affairs and quality assurance.

Ms. Mc Guinness joins Veloxis with over 15 years of senior regulatory and quality affairs experience from Mylan, Octagon Research Solutions (now part of Accenture), Sanofi-Aventis, and Ranbaxy. Vincenza Nigro continues to lead the medical affairs activities for Veloxis. Ms. Nigro has extensive transplant experience from her prior work at Roche where she supported the mycophenolate franchise.

In her role with Veloxis, Vincenza is responsible for publication strategy and for support of dissemination of scientific information to transplant physicians and surgeons and for the conduct of Phase IV clinical studies.