Immunetics,a developer of infectious disease diagnostic tests,has appointed John Yonkin as the company's new chief executive officer(CEO),effective from 1 December 2012.

Prior to joining Immunetics,Yonkin served at Alere as vice president for strategic projects,where he lead the executive responsible for the integration of acquired Biosite company.

From 2001-2005,Yonkin worked at Inverness Medical Innovations as vice president of US sales and marketing and from 2005-2007 served as president of nutritionals and pharmaceuticals.

In addition,Yonkin held various roles including product development,managing sales and marketing at Baxter,Genzyme,and Inverness.

Immunetics CEO John Yonkin said,"I am very excited to be joining the very talented scientific team at Immunetics as the company prepares to bring to market the innovative BacTx rapid test for bacterial contamination of platelets."

The FDA-approved BacTx test addresses global infectious risk in transfusion,caused by the estimated 1 in 2,000 platelet units that are contaminated with bacteria leading to illness and death among recipients.