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Raj Agrawal

VP & Head, Ophthalmological Clinical Development at Rezolute

Dr. Agrawal is an Ophthalmologist and a Retina Specialist. Before he joined Rezolute, he was Senior Vice-President and Ophthalmology Lead at Coherus Biosciences where he led the development of two biosimilars in Ophthalmology. The program included planning global clinical trials as well as in discussions with multiple regulatory agencies. He was also involved in an in-licensing deal for one of the biosimilars from Europe for the North American market.

Before Coherus, Dr. Agrawal worked at Santen Inc. where he led the Retina program for the global company. During his tenure, he was involved in clinical development programs for in-house assets as well as for in-licensing of retina, glaucoma and cornea assets, as well as programs focused on artificial intelligence. He also worked closely with the business development group as well as venture capital arm of the company in due diligence for investment and other deals, including in acquisition of InnFocus Inc. for US$250m, as well as investment in Regenerative Patch Therapeutics for US$6m.

Dr. Agrawal was a full-time clinical ophthalmologist and retinal surgeon at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, as well as at the Doheny Eye Institute and the Los Angeles County Hospital. He was also the Co-Director of the Intraocular Device program at the Doheny Eye Institute. During his time at USC, he co-invented and co-developed ARGUS-II, the world’s first artificial bionic eye that allows patients blind due to certain ocular conditions, to regain vision, which is approved in many countries around the world. Dr. Agrawal hold multiple patents including for artificial vision and drug delivery devices. Dr. Agrawal has published in many peer-reviewed journals, is a reviewer for multiple ophthalmology journals, and has been invited to speak at international meetings by his peers around the world.

Dr. Agrawal is also the Founder, President and CEO of an international nonprofit, Retina Global, which provides clinical care to underserved patients and training to ophthalmologists around the world. Dr. Agrawal completed his medical schooling in India, followed by Ophthalmology residency and retina fellowship. He worked as a retina surgeon in India, Hong Kong and the Bahamas before joining USC in Los Angeles.