REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Eyconis, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel, best-in-class therapeutics for eye diseases, today announced that Mark J. Bachleda, Pharm.D., MBA, has been appointed as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of its Board of Directors. A biotech industry veteran with a career spanning more than 25 years, Dr. Bachleda brings to Eyconis a track record of exceptional leadership, management, and operational experience in both large and small biopharmaceutical environments internationally and in the United States.
“Mark is an accomplished and seasoned biopharma executive with broad development, manufacturing, and commercialization expertise – all of which will be critically important as we build and advance our pipeline of best-in-class ophthalmology therapeutics based on the TransCon technology platform,” said Dr. Emmett Cunningham, Eyconis co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board. “Since our founding early this year, Eyconis has achieved tremendous strides toward filing an IND for our lead drug candidate for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). I have known Mark for years and am thrilled that he is leading the Company on this journey.”
“Eyconis has the potential to transform the treatment paradigm for eye diseases that are the leading causes of blindness, affecting millions of people worldwide,” commented Dr. Bachleda. “I am excited to join Eyconis at this pivotal time and feel truly fortunate to collaborate with a team that is so dedicated to making a significant difference in the lives of patients and their families.”
Dr. Bachleda has served in executive leadership roles at Amgen, Juno Therapeutics, and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), and most recently, he was Chief Commercial Officer at Galera Therapeutics. Prior to joining Galera, he served as Vice President & U.S. Business Unit Head of the CAR T cell therapy franchise at BMS, a role he held previously at Celgene Corporation before its acquisition by BMS for $74 billion in 2019. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Sales & Account Management at Juno when it was acquired by Celgene for $9 billion in 2018. Previously, he had a 15-year career at Amgen in the U.S. and international roles of increasing responsibility up to Country President & General Manager of Amgen Czech Republic. Earlier in his career, he held positions at Pfizer, Inc., and Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Bachleda is a registered pharmacist and received his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health policy and economics at Thomas Jefferson University and earned MBA degrees from both Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.
