Sound Pharmaceuticals is pleased to announce that David Guyer, MD has joined the company as a strategic advisor. Dr. Guyer is an accomplished academic ophthalmologist and an industry leader in the area of vision loss research and retinal drug development. Dr. Guyer is currently the Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Ophthotech which he began in 2007. As CEO, Dr. Guyer raised more than $350 million in financing including a $192 million IPO in 2013 and has advanced the lead program into Phase 3 clinical trials.
Retinal therapies now generate $12.5B in revenue and are projected to generate over $20B by 2020. Currently, there are no FDA approved drug treatments for any form of sensorineural hearing loss or tinnitus. In contrast, sensorineural hearing loss affects three times the number of people as sensorineural vision loss. “In terms of new drug development opportunities in biotechnology and healthcare, the ear is the next eye” said Dr. Guyer.
Prior to Ophthotech, Dr. Guyer Co-Founded Eyetech Pharmaceuticals in 1998 which was the first retinal drug development biotech at the time. As CEO, he raised over $400 million in financing including an IPO in 2004. Eyetech’s injectable drug Macugen® was the first FDA approved anti-VEGF treatment for wet AMD and resulted in its acquisition by OSI Pharmaceuticals for $935 million in 2005. Prior to Eyetech, Dr. Guyer was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine.
He is a graduate of the Yale University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
SPI is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing the first therapies for acquired forms of sensorineural hearing loss. SPI-1005, an oral drug currently under investigation for noise induced hearing loss, demonstrated significant safety and efficacy in a Phase 2 clinical trial last year. SPI has three R&D programs aimed at treating both acute and chronic forms of noise induced hearing loss and tinnitus, chemotherapy and aminoglycoside induced ototoxicity, and age-related loss or neurodegeneration.
