This week, an encouraging turnaround for Ocular Therapeutix, a chat with Alnylam’s CEO defending changes to the HELIOS-B study and talking up its hypertension treatment, and quick takes on Amylyx and obesity stocks.
A Worst CEO gets some much-needed help
For most of last year, Ocular Therapeutix CEO Antony Mattessich promised shareholders that he was close to nailing down a lucrative pharma partnership that would pay for late-stage clinical trials of the company’s treatments for degenerative eye diseases. The deal never happened. I heard from many Ocular investors who were frustrated and angry about Mattesich’s poor job performance. He ended up earning a spot last year on my worst biopharma CEO list. It was an easy pick.
On Thursday, Ocular announced a meaningful “leadership update.” Mattessich is still the CEO, but let’s just say the company’s board decided to surround him with new executives and retinal experts with proven track records of getting stuff done.