Yerxa leaving Foundation Fighting Blindness to become Opus’ permanent CEO
Plus Biden to nominate Arati Prabhakar as director of OSTP, and updates from Oncorena, Panorama, Indivior, Prolacta and more
Foundation Fighting Blindness CEO Ben Yerxa will become permanent CEO at Opus Genetics Inc. — the first company to spin out from the foundation and its venture arm, the Retinal Degeneration Fund — effective July 1. Yerxa has served as CEO of the foundation since 2017, and has been acting CEO of Opus since it launched in 2021. The foundation promoted President and COO Jason Menzo to CEO; SVP of Investments and Alliances Russell Kelley will be the fund's new managing director. Opus is developing gene therapies for inherited retinal diseases.
President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Arati Prabhakar as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and, once confirmed, assistant to the president for science and technology. Prabhakar was director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from 2012 to 2017, and is co-founder and CEO of Actuate, a non-profit...