Visgenx Appoints William Pedranti as Chief Executive Officer

Visgenx, a biotechnology company focused on developing gene therapies for degenerative retinal diseases, today announced the appointment of William Pedranti, J.D., as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Pedranti will also join the Company’s Board of Directors. Martin Emanuele, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Visgenx, will continue as Chief Science Officer. Mr. Pedranti has twenty years of executive leadership experience in the biotech industry including seven years in the ophthalmology space.

“William brings biotech research and development and capital finance experience and a proven track record in building successful, high-performing biotech companies,” stated Arthur Becker, Chairman of the Board of the Company. “The Board is confident in William’s abilities to lead Visgenx through its next chapter as we move our exciting gene therapy product, VGX-0111, forward in development.”

“I am honored to lead Visgenx and join an incredibly talented group of people to build on what has been accomplished,” said Mr. William Pedranti. “Dry age-related macular degeneration is a debilitating condition that affects almost two hundred million people globally and there are limited treatment options. Our lead program VGX-0111 has shown promising results in experimental models of dry AMD and was well tolerated and demonstrated the targeted pharmacological activity in a recent study in non-human primates. Our goal now is to complete a series A funding and translate these findings to human patients with dry AMD.”

Prior to joining Visgenx, Mr. Pedranti was a Partner with PENG Life Science Ventures, an independent and forward-thinking healthcare and life sciences venture firm that he co-founded that holds five, private biotech companies in its portfolio in the areas of ophthalmology, oncology, nephrology, neurology and infectious disease. He has led and/or assisted with capital raises of an aggregate of over $375 million and negotiated transactions with over $1 billion in total deal value, including the sale of products and companies. He has taken a biotech company from its initial founding through FDA product approval and subsequent commercial launch. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (entrepreneurship) from the University of Southern California and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.