Opthea Limited announced that the company's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Megan Baldwin, will transition to Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, effective October 27, 2023, reflective of the company's strategy to advance its US and global presence and commercialization strategy for sozinibercept (OPT-302). Concurrently, the company announced the appointment of U.S.-based executive, Dr. Frederic Guerard as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Frederic Guerard is well-respected healthcare executive with a record of building and growing organizations, guiding R&D pipelines, leading commercial operations, and managing finances while providing strategic direction and successfully steering companies through critical corporate, clinical and commercial growth inflection points.

Dr. Guerard's career in the pharmaceutical industry spans over 25 years and includes multiple leadership, strategic and commercial roles. Fred served as the Chief Executive Officer of Graybug Vision Inc. He led the clinical development of a late-stage wet AMD product candidate. Fred led the merger of Graybug with CalciMedica Inc. and remains a non-executive Board member of CalciMedica.

Before Graybug, Fred acted as the Worldwide Business Franchise Head of Ophthalmology at Novartis. In this role, he successfully led the integration of Novartis retina and Alcon Pharmaceuticals and accelerated the rejuvenation of the product pipeline through strategic acquisitions and licensing transactions in dry-eye, presbyopia, and inherited retinal diseases. Prior to this role, he served as Global Franchise Head of Pharmaceuticals at Alcon.

He has also held multiple leadership positions at Novartis, including Head of United Kingdom and Ireland, Head and Country President of Australia and New Zealand, Head of Marketing and Sales for Emerging Growth Markets Region, Head and Country President Egypt, and Cluster Head North and West Africa. He has served on the Board of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and on the Board of Medicines Australia. Fred holds a PharmD and a Master of Biological and Medical Sciences from the University of Rouen, France, and a Master of Marketing from HEC Paris.