Michael Patane Added to OcuSciences Board of Directors

OcuSciences has welcomed Michael Patane, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors. Patane has more than 25 years of drug discovery and development experience, with a proven track record of leadership in startup, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Many of these roles included ophthalmic product creation and development.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Michael Patane to our Board of Directors,” OcuSciences CEO Kurt Riegger said. “His wealth of experience coupled with his knowledge and expertise in mitochondria, will undoubtedly strengthen our strategic vision and contribute to the continued success of OcuSciences.”
 
Most recently, Patane was president of Mitobridge Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas. In this role, he supervised all operations and played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s vision and strategy, ultimately leading to a $45 million Series A financing, a strategic alliance with Astellas totaling $30 million non-dilutive, and the company’s acquisition by Astellas for $450 million.
 
Dr. Patane was chief scientific officer of Eyegate Pharmaceuticals Inc. (now Kiora Pharmaceuticals), where he focused on discovering and developing ocular therapeutics using a proprietary iontophoresis system. Prior to Eyegate, Dr. Patane held key positions such as director of Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and director of Medicinal Chemistry at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he led drug discovery efforts in the fields of oncology and metabolic diseases. 
 
“OcuSciences is at a very exciting time in its history as it builds momentum around its patented retinal disease detection modality,” Dr. Patane stated. “I am honored to join this board and look forward to working with my fellow directors and senior management to help OcuSciences advance the development and commercialization of its retinal imaging devices.”
 
OcuSciences Inc., is developing retinal imagers to identify metabolic dysfunction occurring in the retina for the early disease detection. Its flagship device, the OcuMet Beacon, has been created to automatically and non-invasively assess retinal metabolic function by detecting the degree of flavoprotein fluorescence (FPF), a well-studied precursor to retinal cell death, in a patient’s eye. OcuSciences has shown preliminary clinical utility in a number of different disease states, including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration.