Industry titan Robert Ruffalo is stepping down from head of R&D at Wyeth. ”“Bob Ruffolo has been the driving force of our R&D progress, establishing Wyeth as one of the research leaders in the pharmaceutical industry,” said Bernard Poussot, Wyeth’s president and CEO. “His legacy will be our pipeline, recognized as one of the industry’s most innovative.”

Pfizer invites investors and the general public to view and listen to a webcast of a presentation by Pfizer chief Jeffrey Kindler at the 33rd Annual Deutsche Bank Healthcare Conference on Monday, May 5th at 12:40 p.m. eastern time. To view and listen to the webcast, visit Pfizer’s website and click on the “Deutsche Bank Healthcare Conference” link in the investor presentations tab.

The University of Kansas has established a new bi-campus autism research center supported by a combination of public and private funding. The Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, or K-CART, will be a multidisciplinary center that promotes research and training on the causes, nature and management of autism spectrum disorders. KU and the KU Medical Center will initially jointly fund the center with seed money of $1 million for five years in part to support intramural pilot projects to attract younger researchers to autism research. “Families throughout the region have come forward to support KU taking a more public leadership role in addressing this perplexing disorder,” said Debra Kamps, a KU senior researcher.

Parexel, a CRO, appointed Imogene Grimes VP of data sciences strategic services. Grimes, a biostatistician with more than 25 years of experience, is contributing to the continued expansion of Parexel’s data science services, including data management, biostatistics and applications of information technology. “The biopharmaceutical industry is undertaking more complex clinical research such as using adaptive designs with the potential to detect safety and efficacy signals earlier. Dr. Grimes will bring experience with advanced statistical methods to Parexel, which we believe will be a tremendous asset to our clients in bringing novel treatments to patients sooner,” said Mark Goldberg, president of clinical research services and Perceptive Informatics at Parexel.

SeraCare Life Sciences announced that the company’s Gaithersburg and Frederick, MD facilities have received ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certification. All SeraCare facilities (Milford, MA, Gaithersburg, MD, Frederick, MD and West Bridgewater, MA) are now ISO certified. “We are building a best-in-class quality management organization that exceeds the industry’s standards and, most importantly, our customers’ expectations,” said Susan Vogt, CEO. Here’s the press release.

Tigermed Consulting joined CROSA, a contract research organization (CRO) service alliance of Sundia Meditech, HD BioSciences, and NovaSecta. The existing drug discovery and pharmaceutical development capabilities of the alliance will be complemented by Tigermed’s expertise in clinical development. Tigermed has a strong track record of providing data management and statistical support and clinical development services to multinational and smaller-to-medium sized pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Here’s the press release.

Merck’s CEO said the news media is not to blame for his company’s reputation or the industry’s. Why does the public mistrust pharma? “The answer to that question I struggle with,” Richard Clark said at a conference. “We need to do a better job as a company and as an industry. Having been at Merck for 35 years, we take way too much for granted. And I don’t think we’re aggressive enough in getting our stories out there.” The Wall Street Journal Health Blog broke the story.

PharmaNet announced quarterly earnings. The company lost $10.1 million, or 53 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31. Revenues were up 2 percent to $86.8 million. “While earnings were adversely impacted by higher-than-expected cancellations which occurred in the fourth quarter 2007 and again in the first quarter 2008, we are encouraged by the significant new business wins allowing us to build our backlog,” said Jeffrey McMullen, president and CEO. “The cancellations are not the result of our performance, but are instead related to clients’ decisions about the product under study.” Here’s the release.

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