Monday, February 2, 2009

Ashton named new president and CEO of pSivida

By Marc Songini

Watertown eye treatment drug company pSivida Corp. has appointed company board member Paul Ashton as its president and CEO.

PSivida (Nasdaq: PSDV), develops miniaturized, injectable drug delivery systems for eye patients. In a statement, the company claimed its board expects Ashton “to continue to provide strategic leadership and vision as the company advances its portfolio of drug delivery products.”

Ashton joined pSivida in December 2005 after pSivida’s acquisition of Control Delivery Systems (CDS). Ashton was CDS’ co-founder, president and CEO, and a member of the board of directors. In January of 2007, Ashton became managing director of pSivida and is currently on the company’s board of directors. Prior to co-founding CDS, Ashton was a joint faculty member in the ophthalmology and surgery departments at the University of Kentucky. He also served on the faculty of Tufts University, and he was also a pharmaceutical scientist at Hoffman-La-Roche Inc.

Ashton claimed in a statement the company’s strategy is to develop specialty pharmaceuticals in the ophthalmic market and “to pursue non-ophthalmic applications via partnering.” 

Currently, pSivida has two products approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Retisert, which treats uveitis, and Vitrasert, for treating AIDS-related cytomegalovirus retinitis. pSivida’s intellectual property portfolio contains 45 patent families and more than 100 granted patents, officials say.

In December, pSivida announced its Medidur technology (licensed to Alimera Sciences Inc.) had begun an early-stage clinical trial for treating macular degeneration. For 2008, pSivida reported a net loss of $75.67 million on revenue of $3.48 million.
 

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story noted incorrectly the location of pSivida's headquarters as Australia. The company moved its headquarters from Australia to Watertown in June 2008.