Oculis S.A. (“Oculis”), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative ophthalmic treatments to improve the sight and lives of patients, announces the further strengthening of the Company’s executive leadership team with the appointment of Dr. Bastian Dehmel as global Chief Development Officer, based in Oculis’ corporate headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. At Oculis, Dr. Dehmel will be responsible for driving the further development of the Company’s strong advanced pipeline of innovative ophthalmology therapies through the New Drug Application stage.

Dr. Dehmel brings close to 20 years of global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry experience, spanning early and late-phase drug development, clinical operations, biostatistics, and regulatory and medical affairs across multiple therapeutic areas. He joins Oculis from OxThera, a Swedish biopharma company, where he was Chief Medical Officer. Prior to this, he spent more than 10 years at Amgen where he held roles of increasing responsibility, both in the European and Global headquarters, where he led its global Phase III EVOLVE study (Sensipar(R)/Mimpara(R)) and co-led the global product strategy team. He has also held medical advisory roles at Novo Nordisk in Denmark and GlaxoSmithKline in Germany. 

Dr. Dehmel received his clinical training in Internal Medicine at Charité University and worked as a post-doc at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, both in Berlin, Germany. 

Riad Sherif, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Oculis, said: “Bastian has a wealth of international experience in leading global clinical development programs gained both from large pharma and innovative biotech companies. We are excited to have him join Oculis as we further accelerate our innovative pipeline of transformational treatments in ophthalmology. His knowledge and expertise will be key in the next phase of our journey to successfully bring to market Oculis’ novel product candidates for the benefit of patients globally.”

Dr. Bastian Dehmel, Chief Development Officer of Oculis, added: “Oculis’s mission to seek innovative solutions to ophthalmology diseases that transform the lives of patients is bold and exciting and I am delighted to join such an inspiring team. Oculis has already built a unique and highly differentiated pipeline and I look forward to further supporting its progress towards commercialization with my experience in executing global drug development programs.”