Opthea Appoints U.S.-Based Leadership with Fred Guerard as CEO and Peter Lang as CFO - Seite 2

Fred Guerard, Chief Executive Officer of Opthea, continued “I’m excited to join Opthea at such an important time for the Company. I believe it’s now well-positioned to disrupt the eye disease treatment landscape highlighted by sozinibercept’s potential to become the first drug, when used in combination, to deliver superior visual gains compared to standard of care in wet AMD.  I wish to extend my gratitude to the Board for this opportunity and look forward to working with Megan, Peter and the entire team as we work to advance Opthea to ultimately become a premier ophthalmology company.”

Peter Lang added, “I am honored to have this opportunity to work with Fred, Megan, the management team, and Board to efficiently grow the business and bring significant value to patients, clinicians, and investors. The Opthea team continues to build a unique biotech and realize the full potential of its pipeline with a differentiated, first-in-class product candidate in the late stage of pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials addressing a real need for wet AMD patients.”

Frederic Guerard

Dr. Guerard’s career in the pharmaceutical industry spans over 25 years and includes multiple leadership, strategic and commercial roles. Fred served as the Chief Executive Officer of Graybug Vision, Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing potentially transformative therapies for ocular diseases. He led the clinical development of a late-stage wet AMD product candidate. Fred led the merger of Graybug with CalciMedica, Inc. and remains a non-executive Board member of CalciMedica.

Before Graybug, Fred acted as the Worldwide Business Franchise Head of Ophthalmology at Novartis. In this role, he successfully led the integration of Novartis retina and Alcon Pharmaceuticals and accelerated the rejuvenation of the product pipeline through strategic acquisitions and licensing transactions in dry eye, presbyopia, and inherited retinal diseases. Prior to this role, he served as Global Franchise Head of Pharmaceuticals at Alcon.

He has also held multiple leadership positions at Novartis, including Head of United Kingdom and Ireland, Head and Country President of Australia and New Zealand, Head of Marketing and Sales for Emerging Growth Markets Region, Head and Country President Egypt, and Cluster Head North and West Africa. He has served on the Board of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and on the Board of Medicines Australia.