The furious activity in the health and pharmaceutical portal market (CI No 3,573) shows little sign of dying down. PlanetRx is the latest player to make headlines, having appointed James Chong to the position of chief technology officer. Chong could hardly come with better credentials. He has worked for Charles Schwab and Co for 11 years, most recently as vice president of architecture and planning. The Schwab web-based retail-trading system he helped build is a byword for secure commerce on the internet. Chong is not the first high-profile technology executive to jump ship for a pharmaceutical start-up. In July 1998, Peter Neupert resigned as Microsoft’s head of new media to take the helm of the Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers-backed Drugstore.com (CI No 3,461).
