Untapped market opportunities for treating and possibly curing underserved diseases have spurred an active deal-making environment in regenerative medicine, according to a new report from Datamonitor Healthcare.

This week’s announcements include Valeant’s appointment of an executive vice president finance, Editas Medicine’s appointment of a chief scientific officer, Clintec’s appointment of AstraZeneca’s former global research director and various board appointments by Acadia, Scancell, PhaseRx and Gilead.

Batu Biologics, a San Diego biotechnology company developing cancer angiogenesis-targeting immunotherapeutic product ValloVax, has named Dr Alan Lewis as chair of its board of directors. Dr Lewis has previously been vice-president of research at Wyeth-Ayerst, and CEO at Signal Pharmaceuticals, Novocell, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Most recently he was CEO of Medistem, where he worked with Batu Biologics co-founder Dr Thomas Ichim.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Dealmaking column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced December 2013 through January 2014.