Eyevensys Appoints Dr Ronald R. Buggage as Chief Medical Officer

PARIS, September 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Eyevensys, a clinical stage biotech company developing its proprietary EyeCET platform, the first non-viral gene expression technology that enables the safe, local, sustained production of therapeutic proteins in the eye to address a wide range of ophthalmic diseases, announces today the expansion of its executive team with the addition of Dr Ronald R. Buggage as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr Buggage brings more than 14 years' experience from both large pharma and biotech companies having worked in senior development positions in the US and Europe. Dr Buggage will drive the Company's drug development strategy, overseeing clinical development programs for a broad range of ophthalmic indications based Eyevensys' unique non-viral gene therapy EyeCET platform.

Dr Buggage was most recently Division Medical Officer at Sanofi's Ophthalmology Unit, responsible for the leadership and coordination of medical and scientific activities for its ophthalmology portfolio including development programs for ocular gene therapy. He also served as Chief Scientific Officer of Novagali Pharma, where he was responsible for the global clinical and regulatory strategy; Novagali Pharma was successfully acquired by Santen. Prior to moving to France, Dr Buggage held various positions of increasing clinical development responsibility at Novartis and Pfizer. Dr Buggage obtained his MD at UCLA School of Medicine, specializing in ophthalmology at Emory, and completed his training in ocular immunology and uveitis at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Raffy Kazandjian, CEO of Eyevensys, said, "We are delighted to add such an experienced and high-calibre individual to our executive team. Ronald's unique combination of regulatory, medical, and drug development expertise in the ophthalmic space, including uveitis, will be a major asset as Eyevensys advances its high potential pipeline. This includes our lead product EYS606 for which the first in human phase I/II clinical trial was recently initiated in France."

He added, "Eyevensys has a unique approach to treating ophthalmic diseases based around our proprietary EyeCET platform that we believe is the only non-viral technology that enables the safe local sustained production of therapeutic proteins in the eye for up to six months. I am confident that our approach will have a clear appeal to physicians and patients, offering them a clearly differentiated alternative to existing treatments for major ophthalmic indications."

Dr Ronald R. Buggage, CMO of Eyevensys, commented, "I am particularly thrilled to join Eyevensys at such a pivotal time. Its proprietary EyeCET platform offers an innovative approach to sustained intraocular drug delivery which combined with the non-viral delivery of the plasmids provides a convenient alternative to current biologics used to treat ophthalmic diseases. I believe that with EyeCET, Eyevensys has the potential to build an exciting, high value pipeline of new ocular therapies."

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 broad range of ophthalmic diseases.

Eyevensys' EyeCET 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 believes its EyeCET technology can improve both short and long-term therapeutic outcomes by greatly enhancing patient compliance and significantly improving the tolerability of treatment.

Eyevensys' lead product EYS606, a non-viral plasmid encoding anti-TNFα, is a potential new treatment for patients with non-infectious Uveitis (NIU). 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 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 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
Raffy Kazandjian, CEO
Raffy.Kazandjian@eyevensys.com
Tel: +33-(0)-1-84-79-10-60

Media Relations
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
David Dible, Sylvie Berrebi, Marine Perrier
eyevensys@citigatedr.co.uk
Tel: +44-(0)-20 7-638-9571