DURHAM, N.C.—Aerie Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AERI), an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, announced that Raj Kannan will join the company as chief executive officer and a director, effective Dec. 20, 2021. Benjamin F. McGraw, III, PharmD, executive chairman of Aerie’s board of directors, said that Kannan “brings a track record of building effective organizations and teams, launching and growing products in the U.S. and globally, building commercial operations, providing strategic direction to pipeline development and successfully guiding companies through important inflections in their growth trajectories.

He added, “With a strong commercial franchise in glaucoma, solid research and development foundation and a pipeline led by two-Phase 3-ready programs, Aerie is poised to fulfill its goal of becoming a leading ophthalmology company under Raj’s thoughtful and strategic leadership.”
 
Kannan has over 25 years of experience leading and developing companies. He has effectively led and grown organizations and supported multiple successful launches across therapeutic areas in the U.S. and globally. Prior to joining Aerie, Kannan was the CEO and president of Chiasma, Inc., where he led the organization through the approval and the launch of the first oral therapy in over a decade for patients with acromegaly and subsequently through the acquisition by Amryt Pharma Plc.
 
Before that, Kannan was chief commercial officer at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. where he built the commercial operations, including sales, marketing and business analytics functions. Prior to Kiniksa, he served as the global head of the neurology and immunology business franchise at Merck KGaA, where he was responsible for transforming the largest franchise into a growth franchise with $2 billion in annual revenues through significant strategic shifts in investment to support new product introductions and through recalibration of pipeline investments.
 
Before that, Kannan spent 10 years at Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH in the U.S., Canada and in Germany, including as global marketing head of the cardiovascular franchise, where he was responsible for more than $3.5 billion in annual revenues. He currently serves as a non-executive board member for Amryt Pharma Plc.

Aerie is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of first-in-class/best-in-class therapies for the treatment of patients with eye diseases and conditions including open-angle glaucoma, dry eye, diabetic macular edema and wet age-related macular degeneration. Aerie has two approved products, two Phase 3-ready programs, and an ongoing research program.