John Babcook has been appointed VP of the Vancouver-based Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and will head up its new biologics division. Babcook has more than 20 years experience in biomedical research and biologics and commercializing technologies. He was previously principal scientist at Amgen Inc's Amgen Canada Inc laboratory in Burnaby BC, specializing in therapeutic antibodies. Prior to that, Babcook was co-founder of ImmGenics Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Abgenix Biopharma Inc, Fremont CA, in 2000. (Abgenix was subsequently acquired by Amgen in 2006