Oculogics Inc. is a Delaware C corporation founded in 2012 with an operating office in Palo Alto CA. It was seed financed by its co-founders who have deep subject matter expertise and freedom to operate.
Tom Jordan Ph.D. is the primary inventor of aldehyde trap therapy and has worked in this field for two decades. He was the founding Chairman and CEO of Neuron Systems (1) where he developed its first-in-class drug series and advanced reproxalap from concept to clinic (2). Tom has three graduate degrees from Harvard University in neurobiology, computational chemistry and immunology.
Jack Chabala Ph.D. (deceased) was a renowned medicinal chemist who invented ivermectin at Merck, led medicinal chemistry at Merck and BMS, co-founded Pharmacopeia and co-invented reproxalap at Neuron Systems as a chemistry advisor on its Scientific Advisory Board.
Co-Founders
(1) Neuron Systems was the company name at its founding. It was renamed Aldeyra Therapeutics (ALDX) at its IPO. (2) Jordan et al., US Patent 7,973,025
Adnan Tufail M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology at the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London, is an expert in the etiology of retinal diseases and consults internationally to pharmas and biotechs in novel therapeutic strategies, clinical development and emerging diagnostic technologies for retinopathies that lead to blindness. Adnan was Chief Medical Officer at Neuron and on its Clinical Advisory Board.
Mark Blumenkranz M.D. is the HJ Smead Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford Medical School. Mark co-founded multiple biotechs, was a member of the Clinical Advisory Board at Neuron, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Alan Laties M.D. (deceased) was the Harold G. Scheie Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania. Alan chaired the SAB at the Foundation Fighting Blindness for three decades, co-founded several biotechs and chaired the Clinical Advisory Board at Neuron.
Co-Founders
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Tom Jordan Ph.D.
Chairman and CEO
Key Executives
Adnan Tufail M.D.
VP Research and Chief Medical Officer
Jack Chabala Ph.D.
VP Chemistry
(deceased 2017)
Improved Potency,
Oral Delivery and
CNS exposure
Adnan Tufail M.D., Chairman
Gideon Shapiro Ph.D. advises the company in medicinal chemistry and CMC. Gideon has an extensive background in novel CNS drug design and development at pharmas in the US and Europe. He has co-founded six innovative biotechs that he led in CEO or CSO executive roles.
Alan Schatzberg M.D. advises the company on neuropharmacology and the treatment of psychiatric disorders associated with neuroinflammation. Alan is the Director of the Stanford Mood Disorders Center, the Kenneth T. Norris Professor and former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and former President of the American Psychiatric Association, Society of Biological Psychiatry and American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Peter Siegl Ph.D. advises the company on preclinical drug safety. Pete previously led global drug safety at Merck, was founding President of the Safety Pharmacology Society, consults internationally in drug development, was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Neuron.
Prof. Gabriel Travis M.D. advises the company on drug strategy for retinal neurodegenerative diseases. Gabe is Professor of Ophthalmology and Biological Chemistry at UCLA, a renowned expert in the etiology of macular degeneration and invented the Abca4-/- mouse model of Stargardt disease.
Scientific Advisory Board
Higher drug potency and oral availability can increase the efficacy and broaden the potential use of aldehyde trap therapy. Oculogics is now extending its capabilities with a novel next generation drug series of much greater potency that can be administered topically or orally depending on the indication, and penetrate the central nervous system efficiently for oral treatment of neuroinflammation in age-related neurodegenerative diseases and secondary to brain or spinal injury or neurosurgery. All traps in this novel drug series are patentably distinct and have multiple branch points in their synthetic routes to facilitate the efficient synthesis of different analogs for different indications or financial exits.
Our first validated lead in this series was found have over 500 times more potency than reproxalap in a standardized cellular assay, high oral availability and exemplary pharmacological properties. Its potency was achieved by optimizing its structure with computational methods of quantum mechanics (density functional theory, DFT) that calculate the free energy (ΔG) of drug-target reactions and are predictive of experimental results from cellular assays and knockout mouse studies.
Improved Potency,
Oral Delivery and
CNS exposure
Tom Jordan Ph.D., Chairman
Mark Blumenkranz M.D., Director
Alan Laties M.D., Director. Alan recently passed away and his Board seat remains open.
Michael Palfreyman Sc.D., Ph.D., Independent Director.
Michael was VP R&D and Head of CNS Research at Marion Merrell
Dow (now Sanofi), had executive roles as Chairman, CEO, and CSO
at multiple biotechs and was a preclinical advisor at Neuron.
Goodwin Procter LLP
Anthony McCusker, an M&A specialist, has personally advised
Oculogics since its founding in corporate law, M&A and financing
strategy. Anthony previously co-chaired Goodwin’s Global Technology
Practice and is now the global Chair of the firm.
Theresa Kavanaugh Ph.D., an MIT trained organic chemist, is a Senior
Partner and co-founder of Goodwin's global Drug Development
Practice. Theresa personally guides Oculogics in its intellectual
property protection and patent strategy.
info@oculogics.com (please, no vendor inquiries)
Board of Directors
Legal Counsel
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