Avedro taps Visiogen founder Zadno for CEO | Personnel Moves Sept. 9 2016

Avedro taps Visiogen founder Zadno for CEO

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Avedro said it named the founder, president of Abbott (NYSE:ABT) acquisition Visiogen, Reza Zadno, to be its new CEO.

Zadno replaces CFO/COO Brian Roberts, the former CFO at Insulet (NSDQ:PODD), who stepped in on an interim basis when David Muller bowed out shortly after Avedro closed a $32 million equity round in November 2015.

In September 2009, Abbott paid $400 million for Visiogen and its Synchrony accommodating intraocular lens for treating presbyopia in cataract patients. Zadno was also chairman at a pair of other eye care companies that were bought by larger companies: Transcend Medical, acquired by Novartis (NYSE:NVS) unit Alcon in February, and Oraya Therapeutics, which was picked up by Carl Zeiss Meditec (ETR:AFX).

“We are very pleased to have Reza join Avedro’s senior executive team as CEO,” director Dr. Gil Kliman, managing director at InterWest Partners, said in prepared remarks. “His entrepreneurial skills and proven leadership will help assure the successful commercialization of our recently FDA approved cross-linking device and drugs in the United States, and speed our clinical development of PiXL, a first-in-category, non-surgical procedure for the correction of myopia.”

“It’s been exciting to watch Avedro make tremendous strides in bringing corneal cross-linking to market,” Zadno added. “I’m honored to join this team of talented professionals and look forward to working with them to deliver products that dramatically improve the lives of patients with keratoconus around the world and to advance non-surgical technology to help reduce the need for eyeglasses and contact lenses.”

Avedro also said that it named Dr. Rajesh Rajpal chief medical officer earlier this year.

“As one of the 1st investigators in the Avedro clinical studies for collagen cross-linking and a former member of its Medical Advisory Board, I am acutely aware of the important clinical benefits of Avedro’s products today, and the exciting potential that they have in the future,” Rajpal said. “I look forward to working with Reza and our entire team to help advance the commercialization and clinical development of Avedro’s cross-linking products globally.” Read more

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