Opthea Announces Key Leadership Changes for 2025 Launch

Opthea has announced key leadership appointments to strengthen its commercial and clinical capabilities as it prepares for the 2025 topline data readout of Phase 3 trials for sozinibercept, its lead candidate for wet AMD.

New Leadership Appointments

• Daniel Geffken – Appointed interim Chief Financial Officer, effective September 9, 2024. Co-Founder and Managing Director of Danforth Advisors, Geffken brings 30+ years of life sciences experience, having served as CFO and consultant for numerous companies. He replaces Peter Lang, who was instrumental in securing $150 million in financing.

• Mike Campbell – Appointed Chief Commercial Officer. With over 30 years of experience, Campbell led the launch of Lucentis for wet AMD at Genentech and contributed to retinal treatments at Novartis and Shire. He succeeds Judith Robertson.

• Dayong Li, PhD – Appointed Senior Vice President of Biometrics. Li has 25+ years of experience and previously worked at Marinus Pharmaceuticals. He will oversee statistics, data management, and programming.

• Jen Watts – Appointed Vice President of Global Clinical Operations. With two decades of experience, Watts led clinical operations at Complement Therapeutics and Graybug Vision. She replaces Bruno Gagnon.

• Anthony Bonifazio – Appointed Vice President of Market Access. Bonifazio has held leadership roles at Astellas and Novartis, overseeing the commercialization of Izervay for geographic atrophy and Beovu for wet AMD.

These appointments aim to position Opthea for the upcoming commercialization of sozinibercept in wet AMD.