Opthea Limited announced three senior hires as the Company continues to prepare for the sozinibercept phase 3 topline data readouts of COAST anticipated in early Q2 calendar year 2025 and ShORe in mid calendar year 2025.
“Opthea is at an inflection point with the anticipated sozinibercept phase 3 topline data readouts in 2025 and subsequent US and other regulatory submissions around the world,” said Frederic Guerard, PharmD, CEO, Opthea. “The appointments of Dr. Parisa Zamiri as Chief Medical Officer, Tom Reilly as Chief Financial Officer, and Anand Sundaram as Vice President Marketing further deepen our team’s expertise in retina, strengthen our leadership in finance, and continue to advance Opthea’s commercial readiness.”
Parisa Zamiri, MD, PhD has been appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO), effective October 7, 2024, reporting to Frederic Guerard, PharmD, CEO, Opthea. She will oversee clinical development and operations, regulatory and medical affairs, as well as biometrics. Dr. Zamiri is a physician-scientist with deep expertise in drug discovery and development.
She is an ophthalmologist by training, with clinical experience in medical retina, immunology, and inflammation. She most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer at Complement Therapeutics and previously at Graybug Vision.
Prior to that, she served as Vice President, Global Head of Clinical Development and Therapeutic Area Head for Ophthalmology at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, leading a group of clinical scientists and ophthalmologists that designed and executed phase 1 to phase 4 clinical trials with novel biologics, gene therapies, small molecules, and digital therapeutics for ophthalmic indications, such as wet AMD, geographic atrophy, retinitis pigmentosa and dry eye. Dr. Zamiri received her medical degree from the King’s College Hospital, University of London, and did her ophthalmology residency at the North Thames Rotation, affiliated with the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. She earned her PhD in ocular immunology for her research on the immune privilege of the subretinal space, conducted at the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a Harvard Medical School affiliated institute.
Tom Reilly has been appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective October 28, 2024, reporting to Frederic Guerard, PharmD, Chief Executive Officer, Opthea.
Mr. Reilly has more than 25 years of experience in building and leading finance and administration teams at life sciences companies both in the United States and globally.
Before joining Opthea, Mr. Reilly served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Human Resources of Amarin Corporation, supporting the commercial expansion of the company’s lead asset in cardiovascular disease.
Mr. Reilly also served as Chief Financial Officer for Cara Therapeutics and Head of Finance for the Allergan General Medicines business, supporting several commercial launches in neuroscience.
Mr. Reilly spent 14 years with Novartis, serving in roles of increasing responsibility, including Finance Head for the Oncology development unit, Chief Financial Officer for Novartis Pharma Austria, and Financial Controller for Novartis Pharmaceuticals US.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from Manhattan College, an MBA in accounting from Seton Hall University, and he is a certified public accountant. Mr. Reilly will succeed Daniel Geffken who has served as Chief Financial Officer ad interim.
Anand Sundaram has been appointed Vice President Marketing, effective October 14, 2024, reporting to Mike Campbell, chief commercial officer, Opthea. Mr. Sundaram brings more than a decade of commercial experience in brand strategy, marketing, access and reimbursement, digital, and sales across retina, cardiovascular, and infectious disease to Opthea.
He joins the Ccompany from Astellas (formerly Iveric Bio) where he served in commercial strategy and market access leadership roles to drive the successful launch of Izervay in geographic atrophy.
During his tenure at Novartis, Mr. Sundaram led the launch marketing of Entresto in diastolic heart failure and was the second commercial hire building and launching Beovu in wet AMD.
At Genentech, he led the launch of the Lucentis pre-filled syringe, the first of its kind in the US. Mr. Sundaram holds a BSE in Biomedical Engineering and BS in Economics from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina