Management Team

Samir Patel is the Co-founder, President and CEO of Ophthotech Corporation. He also serves on its Board of Directors. Previously, Dr. Patel was the co-founder and Director of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals where he also served as the Chief Medical Officer and Chief of Clinical and Commercial Strategy.

Prior to joining Ophthotech, Dr. Patel spent over a decade in academic medicine. He joined the University of Chicago, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science in 1991 where he served as the Director of the Retina Service and the residency program and was an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology. His area of academic interest focused on cell therapies for Age Related Macular Degeneration and while at the University of Chicago, he was amongst the first to perform human retinal transplant in the world. Dr. Patel received his Medical Degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and ophthalmology training from the University of Chicago. He received his training in retinal surgery from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Patel has been a consultant to multiple ophthalmic biotechnology companies and serves on the scientific advisory board of Aerie Pharmaceuticals and as a director of EyeGate Pharma

Evelyn Harrison joined Ophthotech in August 2007 as the Chief Operating Officer. She brings more than 19 years of management and clinical research experience.

Ms. Harrison’s professional career began in clinical research at a major New York City teaching hospital. She then moved to Hoffmann LaRoche, where she was Director of Clinical Operations responsible for the development and implementation of strategic programs for Roche’s Oncology franchise.

From 2000 to 2006, Ms. Harrison was with Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, where she held the management positions of Vice-President and Senior Vice-President of Clinical Research and Development. During her stint at this company, she played a key role in the development and approval of Macugen® for Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Ms. Harrison continued to play a major role in the transition when Eyetech merged with OSI Pharmaceuticals to become OSI-Eyetech.

She has worked on all phases of global clinical trials and has extensive experience in multiple therapeutic areas such as bone-marrow transplantation, organ transplantation, oncology, and virology. Her contributions led to the approval of new drugs such as Zenapax® and Xeloda® in the U.S. and Europe.

Ms. Harrison holds a B.A. degree in Biology from Hofstra University and the M.B.A. from Manhattan College.

Loni da Silva, M.S., RAC is our Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs. Loni joined Ophthotech from Pharmasset, where she was Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs.

Previously she was Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals from 2000 to 2005. Loni has over twenty-two years of regulatory affairs, clinical research, and drug development experience with Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., and Pharmasset. She has been directly involved in all aspects of drug product registrations, including all activities related to Macugen for macular degeneration. Loni has also been involved in two successful IPOs. Loni has worked in a variety of therapeutic areas such as ophthalmology, virology, oncology, and gastrointestinal diseases.

Loni received a B.S. in Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University, a Masters in Drug Regulatory Affairs from Long Island University and is regulatory affairs certified.

Harvey N. Masonson MD is the Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Ophthotech.

Harvey has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with OSI Eyetech Inc., Sankyo USA Corp., Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Inc., and ER Squibb. As Vice President, Clinical Development and Drug Safety at OSI Eyetech, he was in charge of the safety and risk management aspects of Macugen®. Harvey directed the clinical program that led to FDA approval of Benicar® (angiotensin receptor blocker) and Benicar HCT® at Sankyo USA. At Squibb, his focus was to establish that Pravachol® was not cataractogenic, and the compound was the first FDA-approved “statin” without a requirement for periodic eye examinations. Dr. Masonson received his MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed his residency in Ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He is board-certified in Ophthalmology.

Thomas Biancardi joined Ophthotech in September 2007 as the Vice President of Finance and Operations.

Prior to joining Ophthotech, Tom worked with Eyetech Pharmaceuticals for 3 years as the Senior Director of Finance and Operations. In this role he acted as the Chief Financial Officer of the Eyetech Business Unit as well as the strategic planning/business analytics lead. There he played a key role in the acquisition of Eyetech by OSI Pharmaceuticals in 2005 as well as the divestiture of the Eyetech business unit in 2007. Prior to joining Eyetech, Tom worked at Pfizer for 5 years in increasing roles of responsibility with both corporate and commercial finance. This included the global financial management of Pfizer's $3.0B Specialty and Hospital products group. Tom also has experience in strategic management consulting with Arthur Andersen, and financial management with the BOC Group. Tom holds an M.B.A. from New York University, and Bachelor of Science degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Economics from Rutgers University.

Dr. Rich Everett is the Vice President of CMC Operations at Ophthotech. Rich has more than 24 yeas of biotech and pharmaceutical product development experience contributing to the success of such companies as Amgen, Centocor, and OSI-Eyetech to name a few.

Rich's contributions cover a broad analytical/bioanalytical landscape as well as process, preformulation and formulation development with a focus on proteins, antibodies, peptides, oligonucleotides, and conjugates. His technical as well operational, project, and financial management in these areas supported the development and commercial launch of multiple innovative, first-in-class products including Epogen®, Neupogen®, ReoPro®, Remicade®, and Macugen®. Dr. Everett received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Califormia, Santa Barbara, with thesis work focused on characterization of a novel vanadium-containing metalloenzyme.

Patricia Johnson is our Sr. Director, Regulatory CMC, bringing with her over 19 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Patricia was previously the Director of Regulatory CMC at Pharmasset, Inc. from April 2006 to September 2007, where she was responsible for global CMC regulatory activities for nucleotide products in various phases of clinical development. Her responsibilities included direct communication with the FDA regarding both CMC and clinical issues. Patricia’s vast manufacturing and analytical knowledge provided the development strategy necessary to support clinical and marketing applications. Prior to her service at Pharmasset, Patricia was employed by Merck & Co. Inc. where she had over 10 years of experience in global regulatory CMC. Her experience ranged from original IND and NDA submissions to global post approval change activities through deletions of commercial product. Patricia directed several high level cross-functional teams to transfer product technology from research to manufacturing and also provided development process guidance for early clinical development teams. Prior to her regulatory endeavors, she managed the Reference Standard and Drug Substance Stability Testing programs and also developed and validated analytical methods for release testing of drug substances. Patricia received a B.S. in Chemistry from Seton Hall University and a M.S. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Keith Westby is our Senior Director, Project Management. Keith has more than 10 years of experience in project and strategic alliance management and manufacturing operations in biotech companies, two of which executed successful IPOs.

Keith was most recently at Pharmasset, Inc., as Director, Project and Alliance Management, accountable for developing and implementing strategy across manufacturing, research and development, preclinical, clinical, regulatory, and finance for both internal and partnered projects. Prior to that Keith served in positions of increasing responsibility at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals from January 2002 to December 2005, most recently as Director, Alliance & Project Management, leading multifunctional project teams in the NDA filing and marketing approval of Macugen for Age Related Macular Degeneration. Previously, Keith was at Tunnell Consulting from 1997 to 2002, where he was a Senior Consultant in the firm’s Life Sciences practice focused on manufacturing operations and process improvement. Keith received a B.S. in Applied Physics from State University of New York, College at Geneseo and a M.S in Engineering Management from Drexel University.