Vaughan H.J. Shalson has been named president...

Vaughan H.J. Shalson has been named president and chief executive officer of Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine developer of neurological drugs. He has also joined the company’s seven-member board of directors.

Shalson was formerly president and chief executive for Bio-Response Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area biotechnology company that was recently acquired by Baxter International. He succeeds Dr. Harold R. Hutchings, who resigned as chief executive of Cortex last April.