Ian Leitch

Biography

 Ian Leitch has been Director of Clinical Research of Opthea since September 2011. He has over 20 years of research and management experience from drug discovery through clinical development in biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies. For five years prior to joining the company, he was a member of the Medical Sciences group at Amgen Inc in Thousand Oaks California involved in the development of novel therapeutics in Amgen’s oncology pipeline. In his role as Senior Manager in the Early Development Oncology Therapeutic Area, he had responsibility for the oversight, design, management and execution of Phase 1-2 clinical studies in oncology. Prior to joining Amgen, he spent eight years at Miravant Medical Technologies in Santa Barbara California. He held positions of increasing responsibility including Senior Program Manager for Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Study Director for Ophthalmology. At Miravant he managed pre-clinical efficacy studies, developed relationships with Key Opinion Leaders and designed Phase 1-2 clinical studies in a collaboration with the cardiovascular device company Guidant Inc. He previously, held the position of NHMRC Senior Research Officer, at the University of Newcastle, and was based at the John Hunter Hospital in Australia. He received his PhD from the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine at Monash University in 1993 and completed part of the degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara as part of an Education Abroad Program Scholarship.

Research Interest

 Ian Leitch has been Director of Clinical Research of Opthea since September 2011. He has over 20 years of research and management experience from drug discovery through clinical development in biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies. For five years prior to joining the company, he was a member of the Medical Sciences group at Amgen Inc in Thousand Oaks California involved in the development of novel therapeutics in Amgen’s oncology pipeline. In his role as Senior Manager in the Early Development Oncology Therapeutic Area, he had responsibility for the oversight, design, management and execution of Phase 1-2 clinical studies in oncology. Prior to joining Amgen, he spent eight years at Miravant Medical Technologies in Santa Barbara California. He held positions of increasing responsibility including Senior Program Manager for Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Study Director for Ophthalmology. At Miravant he managed pre-clinical efficacy studies, developed relationships with Key Opinion Leaders and designed Phase 1-2 clinical studies in a collaboration with the cardiovascular device company Guidant Inc. He previously, held the position of NHMRC Senior Research Officer, at the University of Newcastle, and was based at the John Hunter Hospital in Australia. He received his PhD from the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine at Monash University in 1993 and completed part of the degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara as part of an Education Abroad Program Scholarship.