Porter Novelli named Peter Pitts partner and director of global healthcare. Pitts joins the firm from Manning Selvage & Lee, where he held a similar position. Pitts is also co-founder and president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a health policy think tank, and served as associate commissioner for external relations at FDA from 2002-2004.

Sanofi-Aventis promoted Paul Chew, MD, to chief science officer/chief medical officer, US, a new position. Dr. Chew was previously president for R&D, US at the company. In his new role, he will be responsible for “establishing a unified medical voice” for Sanofi-Aventis US among internal and external stakeholders, overseeing US medical affairs and R&D and representing accurate and timely clinical and safety information to health authorities, payers, patients and physicians.

The American Heart Association named Neil Meltzer chairman and Clyde Yancy, MD chief volunteer scientific and medical officer for 2009-2010. Meltzer is president and COO of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and SVP of LifeBridge Health. Dr. Yancy is medical director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute at Medical Center in Dallas.