OIS Podcast | Ophthalmology's leading Podcast

Graybug interim CEO Jeff Cleland shares details on the company’s $44.5 million Series B. Cleland gives a report on investor appetite for ophthalmology companies. He also explains how the firm would use the capital to shift its approach from a drug delivery platform technology company to a drug maker.

Sun Pharma, the fifth largest pharma company in the US, targeted ophthalmology as one of the first planks in its new branded pharma business. Hear ophthalmology veteran Jerry St. Peter explain how Sun Ophthalmics hopes to build a new team in ophthalmology.

The FDA approved Avedro’s New Drug Application for its riboflavin ophthalmic solution/KXL System (corneal cross-linking for the treatment of keratoconus and corneal ectasia following refractive surgery). OIS Co-chair Gil Kliman, an investor in Avedro, lays out the company’s next plans.

The near merger between Pfizer and Allergan clearly was financially motivated. But the deal promised to bring Pfizer’s firepower to ophthalmology. What does the annulment of the deal mean for our sector?

The complement system is a promising target for drugs being developed to treat macular degeneration. But success has been elusive. A leading KOL and two CEOs explain what the future of the field may be.

Following his successful exit from WaveTec, Tom Frinzi joined Abbott as a senior vice president and head of AMO. In this exclusive interview with OIS, Frinzi shares his motivations and what he’d like to see AMO become.

Clinical trials of complement inhibitors recently have produced some disappointing results, but Apellis remains committed to demonstrating its own inhibitor can help bring relief to people battling geographic atrophy and AMD.

Glaucoma specialist Dr. Richard Lewis says glaucoma was once the “boring step sister” of the ophthalmology world. But now the chief medical officer of Aerie says the rise in devices and drugs has made glaucoma one of the coolest kids in ophthalmology’s school yard.

CEO Wolfgang Tolle joined VisionCare last year to move the company into the commercial stage. Now with long-term data and reimbursement in place, the firm is making a strong commercial push.

Jeff Heier, MD, is the Director of the Vitreoretinal Service and the Director of Retina Research at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston (OCB) gives an update from the Angiogenesis conference about the advancing anti-angiopoietin programs.

Glaucoma once might have been a boring or sleepy sub-specialty of ophthalmology, but recent technical advances and significant bets placed by large strategics including Alcon’s planned acquisition of Transcend has injected the sector with enthusiasm and energy. OIS Podcast, in our new KOL Corner features, talks with leading glaucoma specialists about where the field is headed.

The combination of Pfizer and Allergan certainly creates some waves in ophthalmology. But did these choppy waters have anything to do with recent leadership changes in ophthalmology?

EyeGate Pharmaceuticals had hit a wall. Its venture investors were tapped out, and the compa-ny needed capital to continue running clinical trials on its lead product. CEO Stephen From turned to the public markets, leading the company through a unique – and small IPO. With $4 million from the offering, the company signed an agreement with Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. to help fund the trial. The pa...

David Muller came close to writing the final chapter of Avedro’s push to have corneal cross-linking approved by the FDA. But he opted to leave the company before the final approval came through to pursue a new venture called Allotex. In this interview with OIS Podcast, Muller explains his decision to leave Avedro and tells us why he’s excited about this new entrepreneurial endeavor.

Inotek CEO David Southwell and William K. McVicar Ph. D. Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, share Inotek’s plan to bring to market a new first-line for glaucoma sufferers.

OIS Correspondents Michelle Dalton and Richard Kirkner pool their insights on the most compelling sights and insights of OIS, Subspecialty Day and AAO. The two scribes opine on exiting new disease targets, advances in drug delivery, the penetration of digital technology and why the `Pfizergan’ deal makes sense for ophthalmology.

Allergan has been a pillar of the ophthalmology sector for decades, so it’s merger with Pfizer is creating some concern along with great optimism. But ophthalmology leaders also see the opportunity for potential in the combination. The deal could bring greater firepower to ophthalmology R&D and M&A and some hope it’s a harbinger of more things to come for the sector.

Elisabeth “Eli” de los pinos was enjoying her job at Eli Lilly’s Oncology Business Unit where she was part of the leadership team responsible for Alimta’s market launch in Europe, a new drug for the treatment of Lung cancer. But she took the leap, leaving corporate comfort to build Aura Biosciences from the ground up around viral-like synthetic nanoparticles that are closely related to wild type v...

The Ophthalmology Innovation Summit hit it big in Las Vegas prior to the industry’s American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting. With close to 1,000 registered attendees, OIS@AAO brought innovators together with both public and private investors as well as corpo-rate leaders of our dynamic sector. OIS Podcast walks through the agenda, hitting upon the highlights that include comments from OIS...

Eleven Biotherapeutics last spring issued some disappointing news when its leading project, EBI-005 didn’t fare well in a Phase III trial for Dry Eye. However, the company’s AMP-Rx platform is chugging along and its EBI-005 is making progress against other conditions including allergic conjunctivitis. CEO and President Abbie C. Celniker, PhD, updates OIS Podcast listeners on the pipeline and share...

Dry eye remains one of the more dynamic sectors of ophthal-mology with Shire’s recent news about its lead Lifitegrast product moving toward FDA approval. Ora knows Dry Eye better than most, and Vice President George Ousler helps fill in the blanks about Dry Eye’s future. Ora also published a paper in the October issue of Review of Ophthal-mology, Delving into the Dry-Eye Pipeline. To access the pa...

Avedro’s long saga with the FDA continues. Last week, the firm resubmitted the NDA for its riboflavin ophthalmic solution/KXL System, which should be the final step toward the company securing FDA approval. Founder and CEO David Muller explains how the Avedro worked to overcome the latest setback and how he, as the company’s leader, manages expectations of employees, investors, and customers as th...

In July, Biogen signed a potential $1 billion-plus deal with Applied Genetic Technologies Corp. The deal, which included an equity investment, centered around AGTC’s leading gene therapy programs developing treatments for rare ophthalmic conditions X -Linked Retinoschisis (XLRS) and X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa (XLRP).In this podcast, Josh Mandel-Brehm, Director, Business Development and M&A...

David Nierengarten, Managing Director, Wedbush Securities, explains how public market cycles could hit biotech and ophthalmology companies.

Jeffrey D. Marrazzo, Co-Founder and CEO of Spark Therapeutics, discusses the successful Phase III trial of its lead candidate, SPK-RPE65, was able to improve functional vision in patients with a rare form of a genetic disorder known as RPE65-mediated inherited retinal dystrophies. SPK-RPE65 is intended to treat rare blinding conditions caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene, which is linked to subt...