Emergent BioSolutions has welcomed a new president of product development with the appointment of Dr Stephen Lockhart this week.

Dr Lockhart will take up the position of president of Emergent Product Development UK at the pharmaceutical company's office based in Wokingham.

He will provide oversight, leadership and direction of development programmes in both the UK and Germany.

Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions, expressed his pleasure with the appointment.

"We are very fortunate to have someone at the helm of our commercial product development efforts with such broad and varied expertise in vaccinology, as well as an intimate understanding of the critical elements involved in the biopharmaceutical industry."

Development programmes that Dr Lockhart will oversee include a single-dose oral typhoid vaccine which recently completed a Phase II clinical trial as well as a drinkable Hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine currently in a Phase II clinical study.

Dr Lockhart has previously received the Prix Galien, an award given for excellence in pharmaceutical innovation, on behalf of Wyeth in both 2000 and 2005.

Last year, Sanofi Pasteur bought the rights of a Meningitis B vaccine from Emergent Biosolutions for an up-front fee of three million euros (2 million pounds).