Ian C. Read, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, was elected chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Read succeeds Robert J. Hugin, chairman and CEO of Celgene, as PhRMA's chairman. Also elected were Kenneth C. Frazier, chairman, president and CEO of Merck, as chairman-elect of the PhRMA board of directors, and George A. Scangos, Ph.D., CEO of Biogen Idec, as board treasurer.

Previously, Read worked in Latin America as chief financial officer, Pfizer Mexico, and country manager, Pfizer Brazil. He was appointed president of Pfizer's International Pharmaceuticals Group, with responsibility for Latin America and Canada before becoming executive vice president, Europe. He was named a corporate vice president, assuming responsibility for Canada, in addition to Europe. Read later became senior vice president, Pfizer, and group president of the Worldwide Biopharmaceutical Businesses. In that role, he oversaw five global business units—Primary Care, Specialty Care, Oncology, Established Products and Emerging Markets.

Frazier previously was president of Merck with responsibility for the company's three major divisions: Global Human Health, Merck's sales and marketing division for pharmaceutical and vaccine products; Merck Manufacturing, the company's manufacturing and supply division; and Merck Research Laboratories, Merck's research organization.

Scangos joined Biogen Idec from Exelixis, where he was president and CEO. Previously, Scangos held various positions at Bayer, including senior vice president of R&D, and president of Bayer Biotechnology, where he was responsible for research, business development, process development, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance of Bayer's recombinant products.