Clearside Biomedical, Inc. announced that Victor Chong, M.D., MBA was appointed Chief Medical Officer on March 14, 2024. Dr. Chong is a board-certified retinal specialist with more than 25 years of experience as a retinal physician and navigating all phases of ophthalmic drug development.
George Lasezkay, Pharm.D., J.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Clearside, commented, “Victor is a well-known and well-respected retinal clinician and scientist, who is a strategically focused and visionary leader. We are delighted to have him join the Clearside team. Victor has worked on small molecules, biologics, oligonucleotides, and gene therapy across the spectrum of retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), diabetic retinopathy (DR) and inherited retinal diseases, such as XL Retinitis Pigmentosa and Stargardt Disease. He has extensive experience advancing drug candidates through all stages of drug development and has been involved in numerous clinical trials as principal investigator, including the development of ranibizumab and aflibercept for wet AMD. Victor is well-suited to spearhead our suprachoroidal product development activities, including most importantly, the upcoming ODYSSEY Phase 2b wet AMD clinical trial data analysis and the planning for our Phase 3 program.”
“As a retinal physician with broad clinical experience, I believe that suprachoroidal administration using Clearside’s SCS Microinjector® represents an important and innovative approach for delivery of drugs directly to the back of the eye to treat retinal diseases,” said Dr. Chong. “With the upcoming ODYSSEY data and extensive partnership portfolio, this is an exciting time to join Clearside. I look forward to working with the Clearside team to advance the CLS-AX program and develop a potential new treatment option for patients with wet AMD.”
Dr. Chong served most recently as VP, Global Head of Retina DAS at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Innovative Medicine (formerly Janssen), where he oversaw strategic decisions from preclinical to late clinical development, business development and external innovation, and coordination with the commercial organization. Prior to J&J, he was Global Head of Medicine, Retinal Health at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), where he provided the clinical link in discovery and translational medicine and was responsible for clinical development and medical affairs in ophthalmology. His role at BI included moving 11 molecules into clinical development, covering five indications, including wet AMD, DME, DR, diabetic macular ischemia (DMI), and geographic atrophy. His laboratory was the first to link systemic complement activation, in particular C3, to AMD and he has published over 150 peer-reviewed publications.
Previously, Dr. Chong served as Head of Department and Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon of Oxford Eye Hospital, a part of the Oxford University Hospitals. He was also Co-director of Ophthalmic Education at Oxford University. Dr. Chong graduated from the University of Glasgow Medical School (MBChB) with the Neil Arnott Prize, finished his ophthalmic training at Moorfields Eye Hospital and completed a retinal fellowship at the Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. He also completed a postdoctoral cell biology fellowship at the University of Iowa. Dr. Chong holds designations as a Fellow of Royal College of Ophthalmologists (FRCOphth), and Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (FHKAM in Ophthalmology). He earned an M.D. by research in Ophthalmology from King’s College, an MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology and a MPhil in Cell Biology and Pathology from University College London.