Management | EyePoint Pharmaceuticals

As President and Chief Executive Officer and Board Director, Nancy Lurker leads EyePoint Pharmaceuticals in its mission to improve the lives of people facing serious eye disorders. During her more than 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Ms. Lurker has driven scientific and commercial innovation working with both public and private companies from start-ups to the Fortune 500 to bring innovative therapies and diagnostic solutions to patients. She has a proven track record of maximizing the potential of new therapies and successfully implementing innovative US and global drug launches in a diversity of therapy areas. Lurker has served on numerous Boards across public and private companies, and advocacy organizations. Dedicating her career to maximizing the potential of science to improve the lives of patients, Ms. Lurker is passionate about supporting the future of STEM and engaging with the critical thinkers and innovators of tomorrow.

Dr. Jay Duker brings more than thirty years of ophthalmology experience to EyePoint with roles held in the clinical, research, business, and academic settings. Dr. Duker is the Director of the New England Eye Center one of the largest academic ophthalmology practices in the United States. He has published more than 350 journal articles related to ophthalmology and is co-author of Yanoff and Duker’s Ophthalmology, a best-selling ophthalmic text. Dr. Duker is co-founder of three companies, including Hemera Biosciences, whose lead product is an anti-complement gene therapy-based treatment for dry macular degeneration and was acquired by Janssen in 2020. In addition, Dr. Duker is currently the Chairman of the Board of Sesen Bio, a publicly traded clinical stage biopharmaceutical company advancing a pipeline of fusion proteins for cancer indications whose most advanced product is Vicineum, a novel therapy for bladder cancer. Dr. Duker received an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.D. from the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

Mr. Elston brings more than 25 years of diverse financial and senior leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical sector with both global publicly-traded and privately-held organizations. Mr. Elston most recently served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development at Enzyvant Therapeutics where he helped build the pre-commercial rare disease firm leading to its recent acquisition. He previously was President and Chief Executive Officer at 2X Oncology, Inc., where he advanced the Company from a spin-out into a multi-program, clinical-stage organization. He has also held senior executive roles at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc. KBI Biopharma and Optherion, Inc. Mr. Elston began his career in public accounting at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He earned his B.B.A. in accounting from Pace University and is a Certified Public Accountant. He currently serves as a Trustee and Audit Committee Chairman of the DWS – DBX ETF Trust.

Ron Honig, Esq. has served as EyePoint's Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Company Secretary since November 2018, and Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary since April 2021. Mr. Honig brings to EyePoint more than 25 years of legal experience in the medical device, biotechnology, contract manufacturing and legal services industries. As lead in-house counsel to publicly-traded companies and private equity portfolio companies in the global healthcare industry, Mr. Honig has managed legal and compliance functions and has had responsibility with a wide variety of business transactions.

Most recently, Mr. Honig served as VP, Global Legal Affairs for Novanta Inc., a publicly-traded company that develops and manufactures technology solutions for medical device and advanced industrial equipment makers worldwide. Prior to Novanta, he was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Company Secretary of Lake Region Medical, a privately-held medical device and medical component manufacturer, where he was responsible for all legal, intellectual property and environmental, health and safety functions worldwide. In addition, Mr. Honig served as Vice President, Group Legal Affairs and Company Secretary for Gyrus ACMI, a publicly-traded medical device manufacturer focused on urological and gynecological endoscopes, digital visualization and endoscopic treatment and delivery modalities.

In addition to his in-house legal experience, Mr. Honig previously served as a corporate attorney for several law firms, including Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo in Boston. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Boston University, where he served as Editor-In-Chief of the Boston University Law Review, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Systems Engineering from the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Jones brings to EyePoint significant experience commercializing drugs and devices globally. Most recently, he served as Chief Commercial Officer and Vice President, Business Development at Notal Vision, where he developed the commercial and growth strategy for the organization. Mr. Jones’ tenure at Notal Vision also included his role as President, in which he was responsible for developing a business model in the United States that would allow for a telemonitoring platform to be covered by Medicare. Before joining Notal Vision, Mr. Jones served as President of QLT Ophthalmics, where he built the strategy and infrastructure for a U.S. commercial operation. Prior to that, Mr. Jones was Executive Director, Health Policy at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where his team was responsible for all policy issues relating to Medicare Part A, Part B and the Durable Medical Equipment Program. Mr. Jones also served as Executive Director and Head of Market Access and Government Affairs at Novartis Ophthalmics, as well as other roles of varying responsibility during his time at Novartis. Mr. Jones began his career with Geigy Pharmaceuticals as Medical Representative and subsequently as Hospital Sales Representative for Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Jones received an M.A. in political science and a Certificate in Public Administration from the University of Florida, as well as a B.S. in chemistry.

Ms. Leonard currently serves as the Chief People Officer and SVP, IT. She brings to EyePoint over 25 years of successful executive coaching, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, talent management and culture development experience. Most recently Ms. Leonard served as the Head of HR, Consumer Healthcare and Global Functions for Sanofi, US. From 2012 to 2015, Ms. Leonard served as the Senior Vice President of HR & IT of PDI, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed healthcare commercialization company now named Interpace Diagnostics Group, Inc.

Ms. Leonard has led, managed, mentored and coached individuals and teams to achieve outstanding business results. She has designed and implemented organizational development solutions at companies to increase corporate employee engagement and people effectiveness. She has led numerous M&A activities and resulting culture change and personnel integration activities.

Ms. Leonard’s experiences include work with global companies such as Novartis, Pharmacia/Pfizer, Boston Scientific Corporation, Biovail Pharmaceuticals and Silicon Graphics (SGI). Ms. Leonard also established and developed her own company, ImpactHR, LLC which provided coaching and consulting services to the life sciences sector.
Ms. Leonard holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Development and Human Resources from The University of San Francisco, and a B. A. in Psychology and Business Administration from The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA.) Ms. Leonard is a Certified Professional Coach and has earned her Associate Certified Coach (ACC) from the International Coaching Federation (ICF.) She is also certified in the Hogan Assessment Certified Consultant.

Dr. Paggiarino joined EyePoint Pharmaceuticals from Lpath, a leader in lipid-targeted therapeutics, where he served as senior vice president and chief development officer. Prior to joining Lpath, he was vice president and therapeutic unit head for retina diseases at Alcon Laboratories, a division of Novartis, where he was responsible for advancing its retina pharmaceutical development pipeline through regulatory approvals worldwide. Dr. Paggiarino previously served as executive director of clinical development and medical affairs at Pfizer Global R&D, with focus on global clinical development in glaucoma, diabetic and degenerative retinal diseases and medical responsibilities for Macugen®, the first anti-VEGF treatment approved for age-related macular degeneration. Earlier in his career he held research and development positions at Angelini Pharmaceuticals, a private company, where he advanced to president of the firm, and Pharmacia Global R&D, where he was clinical program director of ophthalmology with responsibilities including Xalatan®, one of the leading glaucoma therapies in the world. Dr. Paggiarino earned his degree in Medicine and General Surgery cum laude from the University of Rome La Sapienza and has authored numerous scientific articles.

Dr. Saim has more than 25 years of product development experience. He most recently served as Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development at Collegium Pharmaceutical, where his responsibilities included managing formulation development, clinical trial manufacturing, and commercial manufacturing for immediate, delayed and controlled release dosage forms. Prior to joining Collegium, Dr. Saim served as Senior Principal Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led a team of engineers and scientists in charge of process development, scale up, and technology transfer of North American products. Prior to joining Boehringer Ingelheim, Dr. Saim was Assistant Research Professor at the Higuchi BioSciences Center for Drug Delivery Research. Dr. Saim has published 22 papers in engineering and science journals and holds 18 patents. Dr. Saim earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas.

Jack Weet has served as EyePoint’s Senior Vice President, Regulatory since August 2018. Dr. Weet brings to EyePoint over 40 years of experience in regulatory affairs. He has extensive expertise in the oversight of U.S. Food and Drug Administration relations and negotiations across multiple therapeutic areas, including ocular disease.

Prior to joining EyePoint, Dr. Weet served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Collegium Pharmaceutical, a commercial stage specialty pharmaceutical company focused on pain management, where he was responsible for overall regulatory direction and development of standard practices, procedures and regulatory operations, and worked closely on the approval for XTAMPZA® ER, an extended-release, abuse-deterrent opiate. Prior to Collegium, Dr. Weet was Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Durata Therapeutics (acquired by Actavis plc) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he worked on the regulatory submission of Dalvance® (dalbavancin) and Incivek® (telaprevir), respectively. He also previously served as Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs at Bausch + Lomb, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bausch Health focused on the treatment and prevention of diseases of the eye, where he oversaw global regulatory affairs for the company’s pharmaceutical business. In this role, Dr. Weet worked on the regulatory submission for Besivance® (besifloxacin) for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. Prior to joining Bausch + Lomb, he served in various regulatory affairs positions at numerous pharmaceutical companies including Biovail Technologies, Ltd., Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

In addition to his industry experience, Dr. Weet has served on the faculty of the Pharmaceutical Education and Research Institute (PERI), as a guest lecturer at Georgia Institute of Technology, a member of the Long Island University Curriculum Planning Committee of the Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy, and has authored various papers and presentations at industry conferences.

Dr. Weet received a B.S. in Psychology from St. Lawrence University, and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Iowa College of Medicine.

Mr. Pine has developed a diverse set of skills and extensive deal sheet over his 20+ years of strategic and corporate development experience working at both large and small public pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Eyepoint as Chief Corporate Development & Strategy Officer, Mr. Pine was Senior Vice President, Business Development & Strategy for publicly traded Medexus Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for a number of strategic evaluations and transactions. Prior roles included positions of increasing responsibility at Lupin (branded), Aralez, Novartis, Kos, Organon and Pfizer. While at Novartis, Mr. Pine took on a variety of roles in order to develop a well-rounded understanding of the industry including Business Development, Marketing, Managed Markets, and Strategy & Operations.

In addition to his pharmaceutical experience, Mr. Pine began his career as an Investment Banking Financial Analyst for JP Morgan Chase. Mr. Pine has a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School.

View Scientific Advisory Board