Eyevensys Appoints Dr. Patricia Zilliox as Chief Executive Officer

PARIS, December 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Eyevensys, a clinical stage biotech company developing non-viral gene therapies for ophthalmic diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Patricia Zilliox as CEO.

Dr. Zilliox, who joined the Eyevensys board in May 2016, has more than 25 years of global clinical development expertise. She previously served as Chief Drug Development Officer of the Clinical Research Institute, a division of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, in Columbia, MD, USA. From late 2008 until May 2011, Dr. Zilliox was head of clinical development at Alcon Laboratories, managing clinical development programs in areas of eye diseases such as glaucoma, allergy, dry eye, infectious diseases of the eye, and retinal diseases such as dry- and wet-AMD. Dr. Zilliox previously worked for Alcon in Paris, France, where she was responsible for the execution of Alcon's European ophthalmology clinical trials.

Garth Cumberlidge, Chairman of Eyevensys' Board, said, "I am delighted that Patricia has agreed to become the Company's new CEO. Patricia's strong clinical development experience in the field of ophthalmology together with her expertise at the Foundation Fighting Blindness will be important assets in building significant value for Eyevensys and its unique proprietary EyeCET technology. I am confident in Patricia's ability to enhance and execute the company's strategic plan to bring new medicines to market and create value for the Company's shareholders."

Garth added, "On behalf of Eyevensys board, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Raffy Kazandjian for nurturing Eyevensys from its formative days to a clinical stage company."

Dr. Patricia Zilliox stated: "It is a pleasure to become the CEO of a company I already know well and one that combines world-class scientific innovation, unique technology with significant commercial potential and a team of experts in the field of ophthalmology who are committed to bringing innovative products to ophthalmic patients. I am looking forward to leading our efforts to further the clinical development of our lead product EYS606 and to develop a strong portfolio of proprietary products to treat major ophthalmic diseases leveraging our unique EyeCET platform."

About Eyevensys 

Eyevensys is a private clinical stage biotechnology company developing its innovative EyeCET platform to enable the sustained intraocular production of therapeutic proteins to treat a range of sight threatening ophthalmic diseases.

Eyevensys' EyeCET gene therapy technology uses electroporation to deliver protein coding plasmids, which are safe and non-viral, into the ciliary muscle of the eye. This approach facilitates the sustained production of therapeutic proteins, localized within the ciliary muscle cells.

Eyevensys' lead product EYS606, consists of Eyevensys' proprietary electro-transfection injection system (ETIS) in combination with a plasmid encoding for the production of anti-TNFα, a cytokine that has been shown to play a pivotal role in mediating intraocular inflammation in non-infectious uveitis (NIU). EYS606 is currently in phase I/II clinical trial and has been granted an Orphan drug designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of NIU.

Eyevensys' vision is to use the EyeCET platform to develop a pipeline of therapeutic proteins to address major unfulfilled needs in the treatment of sight threatening ophthalmic diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa, early stage Geographic Atrophy, macular ischemia and other ocular diseases.

Eyevensys was founded in 2008. It is headquartered in Paris, France, and is funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Bpifrance, CapDecisif, Inserm Transfert, and Pontifax.

For more information about Eyevensys please visit www.eyevensys.com

For more information and a photo, please contact:
Eyevensys
Dr. Patricia Zilliox, CEO
patricia.zilliox@eyevensys.com
Tel: +33-(0)-1-84-79-10-61

Media Relations
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
David Dible, Sylvie Berrebi, Marine Perrier
eyevensys@citigatedewerogerson.com
Tel: +44-(0)-20-7638-9571