Venture Philanthropy Launches Biotech From Within

By Matthew Pillar, Editor, Bioprocess Online

At the time I hosted Ben Yerxa, Ph.D., as a guest on episode 94 of the Business of Biotech podcast, he was serving as CEO of Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Retinal Degeneration Fund, and Opus Genetics — three distinct but interwoven organizations with one common goal fighting blindness. In late June, though, he handed off his leadership duties at Foundation Funding Blindness and Retinal Degeneration Fund management to focus on leading Opus Genetics, a biopharma with three preclinical programs addressing gene mutations that cause severe vision loss at an early age (i.e., Leber congenital amaurosis).