Thomas Hohman, PhD.
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KENSINGTON, Md. and SHORASHIM, Israel—Galimedix Therapeutics, which is developing new solutions for ophthalmic and neuro-degenerative diseases, announced the appointment of Thomas Hohman, Ph.D., an established industry leader who oversaw the development of multiple ophthalmology therapies for more than 30 years, to its board of directors. Hohman was formerly head of retina discovery and vice president of retina translation medicine at Allergan, where he was responsible for discovering and advancing new treatments for retinal diseases.

“We are both enthusiastic and honored that Dr. Hohman has chosen to join our board, bringing with him an unparalleled wealth of industry experience that we anticipate he will leverage into guiding us to creating new and lasting relationships within the ophthalmology community that will ultimately benefit patients suffering from glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, as well as other neuro-degenerative conditions,” commented Dr. Andrew Pearlman, CEO of Galimedix.

Prior to retiring, Hohman's efforts at Allergan focused on identifying biomarkers and methods quantifying retina functional changes that predict disease progression. These efforts formed the basis for clinical interventional studies of novel treatments for age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy. Prior to his tenure at Allergan, he held leadership positions at Alcon Research as vice president of retinal research and development, and at Novartis as disease area section head for ophthalmology clinical research and development.

“Striving to preserve vision in degenerative retinal diseases has been my passion for decades. I am extremely pleased to join the Galimedix team in their effort to develop a groundbreaking new class of therapeutics that will help people whose vision is at risk,” added Hohman.

Based in the U.S. and Israel, Galimedix is a Phase 2 ophthalmic pharmaceutical company with a novel, patented small molecule drug with a novel MOA addressing glaucoma and dry AMD utilizing an eye drops delivery platform, which may offer significant safety and compliance advantages over commonly used direct ocular injections. Galimedix has exclusive worldwide license from Tel Aviv University, following return of license by a German pharma (Merz).

In the meantime, key members of the Merz Pharma team that developed the compound are now working with or for the company. The license also includes a next generation, potentially superior version, intended for oral delivery, with potential to treat retinal and other CNS diseases, the company said.