Acucela Announces That Brian O’Callaghan Will Assume the Role of CEO; Ryo Kubota, M.D., Ph.D., to Remain Chairman of the Bo...
December 22 2014 - 10:26PM
Business Wire
Acucela Inc. (TOKYO:4589), a clinical-stage biotechnology
company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics to
treat the progression of sight-threatening ophthalmic diseases,
today announced that Brian O’Callaghan, Acucela’s President and
Chief Operating Officer (COO), will assume the role of Chief
Executive Officer (CEO), along with continuing to serve as Interim
Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Ryo Kubota, M.D., Ph.D., Acucela’s
Founder, will retain his position as Chairman of Acucela’s Board of
Directors. Mr. O’Callaghan will assume the role of CEO effective
January 1, 2015.
As Chairman, Dr. Kubota will continue to drive the Company’s
active investor relations and communications activities in Japan
and take primary responsibility for the development of the
strategic direction of Acucela’s visual cycle modulation
programs.
Mr. O’Callaghan was appointed Acucela’s President, COO and
Interim CFO in early September 2014. His primary responsibilities
will continue to include driving and overseeing Acucela’s business
development and financing strategies, as well as developing
Acucela’s executive leadership team.
Dr. Kubota stated, “Today’s announcement is in line with our
strategy to advance Acucela’s business to the next stage of growth
and reflects my strong desire to concentrate more of my efforts on
the science and vision of Acucela. I, along with our Board, am
confident that this decision will enable Brian and me to best
leverage our respective talents as we build a successful and
sustainable global life sciences company, centered on the
development of an innovative portfolio of ophthalmology products,
designed to serve numerous indications of high unmet medical need.
Over the past year and particularly over the last few months,
following Brian’s appointment to our Executive management team,
it’s been my pleasure to work with Brian. His fierce dedication to
our vision and mission, keen business insights and natural
leadership abilities will serve the Company well as we move into
what I believe will be a bright future for Acucela.”
Mr. O’Callaghan added, “Ryo founded this Company on world-class
science with a defined vision in mind - to become a leading
ophthalmology company, recognized for the unprecedented impact on
the lives of patients. I look forward to helping lead the Company
toward realizing this vision.”
Brian O’Callaghan has served on the Company’s Board of Directors
since September 2013. He was most recently Chairman and CEO of
Sonrgy Inc., a San Diego-based biotechnology company. Previous to
Sonrgy, Mr. O’Callaghan served as President and Chief Executive
Officer of Sangart Inc. and as a member of Sangart’s Board of
Directors. Mr. O’Callaghan has also held the position of Chief
Commercial Officer at NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led
important corporate strategic initiatives, and as General Manager
of two global divisions of Covance Inc., where he was successful in
restructuring and rebuilding two core business units. At Novartis
Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Mr. O’Callaghan served as General
Manager of their North American Transplantation & Immunology
Division, as well as their Infectious Diseases Division, where he
was instrumental in several successful product launches,
in-licensing deals and growing two key business units. Mr.
O’Callaghan co-founded a biopharmaceutical company, BioPartners, in
Switzerland; served as General Manager of Merck Biopharmaceuticals
in Germany; and has held various senior management positions within
Pfizer UK and Bayer, Ireland. Mr. O’Callaghan holds an MBA from
Henley College of Business Management in the UK and Marketing
Diploma from the Cork Institute of Technology and the Marketing
Institute of Ireland. He currently serves on a number of Boards,
including BIOCOM, Aquavit Biopharma and the San Diego Century
Club.
Management also noted that there will be no impact to the
currently ongoing phase 2b/3 emixustat hydrochloride clinical
trial.
About Acucela Inc.
Acucela Inc. (www.acucela.com or www.acucela.jp) is a
clinical-stage biotechnology company that specializes in
discovering and developing novel therapeutics to treat and slow the
progression of sight-threatening ophthalmic diseases impacting
millions of individuals worldwide. Acucela currently has the
following candidates in development in collaboration with Otsuka
Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.: emixustat hydrochloride for GA associated
with dry AMD based on Acucela’s proprietary visual cycle modulation
technology; and OPA-6566 for ocular hypertension and glaucoma.
Cautionary Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release are
forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Any statements contained in this press release that are not
statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking
statements. Words such as “will” as well as similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements include Acucela’s expectations regarding
corporate development activities and the ultimate success of the
enterprise. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that
could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from
those projected in forward-looking statements, including, but not
limited to, the risk that our product candidates will not
demonstrate the expected benefits, the success of our product
candidates depends heavily on the willingness of our collaboration
partner to continue to co-develop our product candidates, the risk
of delays in our expected clinical trials, the risk that new
developments in the intensely competitive ophthalmic pharmaceutical
market require changes in our clinical trial plans or limit the
potential benefits of our product candidates, and other risks and
uncertainties inherent in the process of discovering and developing
therapeutics that demonstrate safety and efficacy. For a detailed
discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to the
Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
which are available on the Company’s investor relations Web site
(http://ir.acucela.com/) and on the SEC’s Web site
(http://www.sec.gov).
Acucela Inc.Francesca T. Nolan,
1-206-805-8300fnolan@acucela.comDirector, Corporate
CommunicationsorTomomi Sukagawa,
+81(0)3-5789-5872investor@acucela.comDirector, Investor Relations
and Communication