Rohan Palekar has been appointed senior vice president and chief commercial officer at Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Palekar will be responsible for leading all of the company’s commercial activities.

“Rohan has an outstanding track record of success in biopharmaceutical sales and marketing,” said Keith A. Katkin, president and chief executive officer of Avanir. “I am delighted that we were able to attract someone of Rohan’s caliber to spearhead our global commercial activities. His comprehensive background in healthcare sales and marketing, new product planning and strategic analysis, as well as his leadership capabilities, will be pivotal to the continued commercial success of Avanir.”

Mr. Palekar has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has worked on brands including Remicade and Stelara, as well as the investigational therapy MDV3100. Mr. Palekar’s most recently served as chief commercial officer for Medivation, where he was responsible for all commercial activities, CMC & manufacturing and public relations functions. Prior to Medivation, Mr. Palekar spent 16 years at Johnson & Johnson in various senior commercial and strategic management roles, most recently as a vice president of sales and marketing at Centocor, where he launched two new indications for Remicade.