Emmett Cunningham

Biography

Dr. Cunningham joined Clarus Ventures in 2006 with more than 20 years experience in the biomedical and biopharmaceutical sectors. He is currently a Partner at Clarus. Prior to joining Clarus, Dr. Cunningham was the Senior Vice President, Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYET), where he helped build and lead the team that developed and commercialized Macugen, a first-in-class product for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. Prior to Eyetech, Dr. Cunningham was at Pfizer, Inc (NYSE: PFE), where he was responsible for the clinical development of early phase central nervous system compounds and the in-licensing of early and late-stage therapeutic candidates in ophthalmology. Dr. Cunningham is an internationally recognized specialist in infectious and inflammatory eye disease with over 300 publications. He is Director of the Uveitis Service at California Pacific Medical Center, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University, and a Research Associate at The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, UCSF School of Medicine. Dr. Cunningham was Clinical Professor and Director of the Uveitis service at NYU from 2002 to 2005, and was Director of both the Uveitis Service and the Kimura Ocular Immunology Laboratory at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) from 1995 to 2001. Dr. Cunningham received an MD and MPH in epidemiology and statistics from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) for work done at The Salk Institute. He completed both a residency in ophthalmology and fellowship training in Corneal Disease and Uveitis at UCSF and The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, a medical retina and uveitis fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and a fellowship in public health ophthalmology with Prof. Alfred Sommer at the Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore. Dr. Cunningham is a member of the Board of Directors of Restoration Robotics, Annexon Biosciences, and SFJ V, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AERI). He was until recently on the Boards of Neomend, Inc. (acquired by CR Bard, Inc., NYSE: BCR) and SARcode BioSceinces (acquired by Shire, plc, Nasdaq: SHPG). Dr. Cunningham is a Board observer for Avillion, and was until recently a Board observer for Aerie (Nasdaq: AERI), Ophthotech Corporation (Nasdaq: OPHT), Pearl Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca, plc, NYSE: AZN), Ferrokin (acquired by Shire). Dr. Cunningham founded and is the Chairman of the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit, a well-attended symposium held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. The OIS brings together leading companies, clinicians, academics and investors in the ophthalmology space.

Research Interest

 =