Karen L. Tubridy, Pharm.D., has been appointed chief development officer at Eleven Biotherapeutics. Ms. Tubridy will be responsible for leading and executing the company’s clinical and regulatory development strategy focused on innovative protein therapeutics for ocular diseases, in particular, the company’s lead candidate, EBI-005. Ms. Tubridy will be a member of Eleven’s management team reporting to Abbie Celniker, Ph.D., chief executive officer.
 
Ms. Tubridy has more than 20 years of experience directing global clinical programs, developing regulatory and clinical strategies, and leading development programs of novel and first-in-class biotherapeutics. Most recently, she served as senior vice president, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals, where she led the clinical, medical and regulatory functions of the company’s lead product candidates. Prior to that she served as executive director, Clinical Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Translational Medicine at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and held similar clinical operations and regulatory positions of increasing responsibility at Syntonix Pharmaceuticals, AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Wyeth, Genetics Institute, and New England Medical Center.
 
“Karen Tubridy is joining Eleven at an exciting time in the company’s evolution. EBI-005, the first IL-1 signaling inhibitor designed for topical ocular administration, has just completed a Phase 1b clinical study in patients with dry eye disease and Karen will play a key role in further advancing the clinical development of EBI-005 based on its positive clinical progress to-date,” said Abbie Celniker, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Eleven Biotherapeutics. “We look forward to leveraging Karen’s extensive global development experience, including clinical and regulatory strategies specific to biotherapeutic product candidates, as we continue to advance EBI-005 into later stage clinical development.”