ALPHARETTA, Ga., Sept. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearside Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSD), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing treatments that restore and preserve vision for people with serious eye diseases, today announced the appointment of Viral Kansara, Ph.D. to the position of Vice President, Discovery.
Dr. Kansara brings over 12 years of experience and expertise in ophthalmic drug discovery, development and delivery to Clearside. Prior to joining Clearside, Dr. Kansara was Global Team Leader and Head of the Ocular Pharmacokinetic and Drug Delivery Lab in the Ophthalmology department at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc. At Novartis, Dr. Kansara’s lab focused on leveraging multiple modalities (biologics, small molecules, gene therapy and long-acting platforms) for the discovery and development of novel treatment therapies for blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Previously, he served as Senior Research Chemist, Pharm. Sciences and RNAi, at Merck & Co., Inc. and also completed a Graduate Research Collaboration with Alcon Research Ltd., focused on the delivery of therapies to the back of the eye. Dr. Kansara earned his Ph.D. in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has authored two book chapters and numerous research articles.
“Viral is a talented scientist, with years of experience gaining a unique understanding of the underlying mechanisms leading to sight threatening diseases,” said Clearside’s Chief Executive Officer and President, Daniel H. White. “Clearside’s non-clinical programs in areas such as gene therapy and choroidal drug delivery are beginning to yield important information and Dr. Kansara’s expertise will be of significant value as we select and prioritize new discoveries to treat sight threatening conditions that may benefit from our proprietary suprachoroidal treatment approach.”
About Clearside
Clearside Biomedical, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing treatments that restore and preserve vision for people with serious eye diseases. Clearside’s proprietary suprachoroidal treatment approach offers unprecedented access to the back of the eye where sight-threatening disease often occurs. The company’s unique platform for eye disease treatments is inherently flexible and intended to work with established medicines, new formulations of medicines, as well as future innovations. Clearside’s pipeline includes advanced and pre-clinical product candidates in diseases where macular edema is a common complication, including uveitis, retinal vein occlusion (“RVO”) and diabetic macular edema (“DME”). Clearside’s most advanced program is in non-infectious uveitis and it expects to submit a New Drug Application (“NDA”) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for use of suprachoroidal CLS-TA for the treatment of macular edema associated with non-infectious uveitis by the end of 2018. The company is also conducting two ongoing Phase 3 trials of suprachoroidal CLS-TA with an intravitreal anti-VEGF agent in patients with RVO. In addition, Clearside recently announced positive topline results from a Phase 2 clinical trial of suprachoroidal CLS-TA used with EYLEA® (aflibercept) in patients with DME, and is continuing to analyze additional data from the trial as it becomes available. Clearside is headquartered in Alpharetta, GA. For more information, please visit http://www.clearsidebio.com. Follow @clearsidebio on Twitter and Linkedin.
