San Diego’s Altair Therapeutics today named former Forward Ventures partner Joel Martin as president and CEO. Martin, who left the San Diego life sciences VC firm in October, was previously a co-founder of Avant BioVentures. Altair’s current CEO Paul Brennan will continue working with the company. Privately held Altair, which was founded in 2007, develops therapeutics for respiratory diseases like asthma and rhinitis. Its first compound, an inhaled new class drug, is in Phase 1 clinical trials.