EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the appointment of Jay S. Duker, M.D. as CEO. Dr. Duker has transitioned from his most recent role as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and president. Dr. Duker has also been appointed to the Board of Directors of the company, effective July 10, 2023. Nancy S. Lurker has transitioned to the role of executive vice chair of the Board of Directors from the position of CEO.
“Serving as CEO of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals these past seven years has been an exciting journey, and I am immensely proud of what our team has accomplished to create a brighter future for patients at risk of losing their sight. It has been a privilege to lead the growth of EyePoint into a best-in-class leader in sustained ocular drug delivery, advancing first-in-class therapeutics,” said Nancy Lurker, executive vice-chair of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. “We have accomplished a tremendous amount of value enhancing catalysts over the last several years including the advancement of EYPT-1901 into two oversubscribed phase 2 trials, revenue growth for YUTIQ culminating in a successful sale of commercial rights to YUTIQ, and the significant strengthening of our balance sheet. With the transformation of EyePoint into a pure play drug development company, a compelling clinical pipeline, and recent financial and clinical achievements that put EyePoint in a position of strength, this is the right time to move into a new role. I have never been more excited about our potential and am deeply confident in the company’s future under Jay’s leadership.”
Ms. Lurker continued, “Jay has been a tremendous partner and instrumental leader in his role as COO, helping to strengthen our organization as we progressed our pipeline of exciting and innovative ocular products, including reporting positive data for our phase 1 DAVIO trial in wet AMD and the initiation of two phase 2 trials for EYP-1901, our phase 2 DAVIO2 trial in wet AMD and PAVIA trial in NPDR. I look forward to working with him as I continue my commitment to EyePoint as Executive Vice-Chair of the Board.”
“Jay is a world-renowned retinal specialist with a successful track record of founding ophthalmology companies. His clear vision and demonstrated ability to lead and execute, along with his clinical and retinal disease expertise make him uniquely qualified to continue to drive EyePoint’s growth as a leader in sustained ocular drug delivery. Jay’s background and deep knowledge of EyePoint, having served the company in various roles for the past seven years, coupled with EyePoint’s sharpened focus on advancing our expanding retina pipeline, make him the ideal fit to assume the CEO position, and reflects the realization of EyePoint’s long-term CEO succession plan,” said Göran Ando, MD, Chair of the Board of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. “On behalf of EyePoint’s Board, we would like to thank Nancy for her outstanding leadership, under which the company achieved significant successes and is now well-positioned for continued growth and continuing to build value for our shareholders. Under her tenure, EyePoint saw the successful US commercial launch of YUTIQ, the pre-clinical, phase 1 and ongoing phase 2 clinical development of EYP-1901, the sale of YUTIQ, and a significantly strengthened balance sheet with over $250M raised along with $82.5M from the sale of YUTIQ. We look forward to her continued guidance and support of the Company in her new role as Executive Vice-Chair.”
“I am honored to become Chief Executive Officer of EyePoint at this exciting juncture as we advance our potentially transformational treatment options for a variety of eye diseases and focus on expanding our pipeline by leveraging the sustained delivery capability of our Durasert E technology. As a physician dedicated to improving outcomes in retinal disease, I am incredibly passionate about EyePoint’s mission of bringing innovative therapies to patients at risk of losing their sight,” said Jay S. Duker, MD, president and CEO of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. “I look forward to continuing to work with our top tier executive team and world-class board of directors to build on our recent achievements. With our strong balance sheet, the anticipated readouts of our two phase 2 trials of EYPT-1901 in wet AMD and NPDR during the next nine months and the planned initiation of a third phase 2 trial in DME in the first quarter of 2024, EyePoint is well-positioned to grow as a leader in sustained ocular drug delivery and bring first-in-class therapeutics to patients.”
Dr. Duker served as an independent member of EyePoint’s Board of Directors from 2016 to 2020. He joined EyePoint as Chief Strategic Scientific Officer on a part-time basis in 2020 then transitioned to full time Chief Operating Officer (COO) in November of 2021.
In his role as COO, Dr. Duker was responsible for overseeing all clinical development, research, product development and manufacturing. Dr. Duker has extensive experience with wide-ranging roles in clinical, research, business, start-ups, and academic settings.
In addition to his earlier roles at EyePoint, Dr. Duker was the Director of the New England Eye Center and Chair of Ophthalmology at Tufts Medical Center and the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Duker has co-founded three start-ups, including Hemera Biosciences, a gene therapy company that developed an anti-complement treatment for dry macular degeneration, which was acquired by Janssen in 2020.
In addition, Dr. Duker was the Chair of the Board of Sesen Bio, a publicly traded clinical stage biopharmaceutical company.
He has published more than 300 journal articles related to ophthalmology and is co-author of Yanoff and Duker’s Ophthalmology, a best-selling ophthalmic textbook. Dr. Duker received an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.D. from the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.