Clearside Biomedical Announces Leadership Changes

Clearside Biomedical announced that its Chief Medical Officer and Chief Development Officer, Thomas A. Ciulla, MD, will transition to the role of Chief Medical Advisor-Retina for Clearside and step down from his full-time position, effective February 17, 2023. In his new advisory capacity, Dr. Ciulla will chair the company’s scientific advisory aoard (SAB), sharing his medical expertise as a practicing retinal specialist and providing counsel on Clearside’s ODYSSEY Phase 2b clinical trial and other suprachoroidal development programs.

“As a leading industry expert regarding suprachoroidal delivery, Tom has been an integral part of our team as we achieved approval for our first commercial suprachoroidal product, Xipere, and successfully advanced our lead development asset, CLS-AX, into our phase 2b ODYSSEY trial in wet AMD. We thank Tom for his many contributions to Clearside. His belief in, and dedication to demonstrating, the potential of administering therapeutics into the SCS has been outstanding," George Lasezkay, PharmD, JD, President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a company news release.

Clearside also announcd that Susan Coultas, PhD, joined Clearside as the company’s Chief Clinical Officer in June 2022, bringing 35 years of experience in clinical development in the biopharmaceutical industry. As Chief Clinical Officer, she is responsible for clinical operational planning and management oversight of the initiation and execution of all Clearside clinical trials as well as interactions with the FDA and international health authorities regarding all clinical trials. Prior to Clearside, Dr. Coultas served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Kala Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the planning and execution of its clinical programs.