Opus Genetics Expands its Leadership Team
Opus Genetics, a gene therapy company developing treatments for inherited retinal diseases, announced the appointments of Vikram Arora, PhD, DABT, as Vice President of Non-Clinical Development; Erin O’Neil, MD, as Vice President of Clinical Development; and Sarah Tuller, JD, RAC, as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Medical Writing. Dr. Arora will report to Opus Chief Scientific Officer Ash Jayagopal, PhD; and Drs. O’Neil and Tuller will report to Opus Chief Development Officer Jennifer Hunt.
“Vik, Erin and Sarah are all seasoned, accomplished leaders in their respective areas of expertise and we welcome them to our growing Opus Genetics team at this exciting time for the company,” Ben Yerxa, PhD, CEO of Opus Genetics, said in a company news release. “We envision a new, efficient model to transform the treatment of rare inherited retinal diseases, and these leaders are the tip of the spear for the important work to come as we prepare for our first program to enter the clinic and to continue to develop our pipeline.”
Dr. Arora brings over 20 years of research and development experience in pharmacology and toxicology spanning early drug discovery to IND-enabling nonclinical programs to support global regulatory submissions for commercial therapeutics including Xembify, Prolastin-C and HyperRAB. Dr. Arora joins Opus following 11 years of leadership at Grifols where he led late-stage discovery research and subsequent development aspects of R&D projects, including pharmacology/toxicology, pharmacokinetics and viral safety for candidates in the pipeline.
Dr. O’Neil currently serves as Attending Ophthalmologist at the Center for Inherited Retinal Degenerations and Ophthalmic Genetics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she maintains a clinical affiliation. In this role, she oversees the treatment of pediatric patients with retinal degenerations and ocular manifestations of genetic disease. Dr. O’Neil also served as a principal investigator on a Foundation Fighting Blindness trial optimizing gene therapy for Choroideremia, for which she was awarded the Diana Davis Spencer Clinical Fellowship Award.
Ms. Tuller has over 20 years of experience in regulatory strategy and operations, spanning numerous clinical and commercial-stage products across a wide range of therapeutic indications, including multiple orphan disease programs. She has led or been a part of numerous successful IND, NDA, MAA and BLA applications, including those of Portrazza in metastatic, squamous NSCLC, Phoslyra in ESRD, and Avonex Pen in relapsing MS.