Great Basin said this week that it has hired several new employees to support commercialization of the company's first molecular diagnostic assay, a test for Clostridium difficile.
To support its US commercialization efforts, Great Basin hired as regional business directors Ron Rohrer and Rhonda Saxton. Rohrer will direct sales efforts in the Midwest region of the US. He most recently served as regional business manager for infection prevention and management in Becton Dickinson's infectious disease division. He has also held sales executive roles at GeneOhm (now part of BD), Transgenomic, Gen-Probe, and Abbott. Saxton will direct Great Basin's sales efforts in the Northeast region of the US. She previously worked for BD Diagnostics, and has managed sales accounts at Quest Diagnostics, Paragon Research, Wendover Corporation, and Novus Services.
Great Basin also hired Miquel Vernet as its European representative responsible for sales, development, and maintenance of relationships with Great Basin's European distributors, several of which the company disclosed this week (see related story, this issue). Vernet previously served as managing director of Europe for MicroPhage. He also served as business development director of Southern Europe at BD Diagnostics and GeneOhm.
Great Basin, based in Salt Lake City, received CE-IVD product marking for its C. difficile assay earlier this year; and in May, it received US Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance for the test (PCR Insider, 5/3/2012).